The Next King (REMAKE)
by NesquickCereal
Summary: A remake of my previous version for this story with the same title. Luffy grows up with the Whitebeard Pirates and his adventures with them up from just a few months old up and how he became the Luffy we all know of today. (Rated M for violence and Language)
1. Chapter 1

Hello guys it is I NesquickCereal back again and now remaking this story. I just didn't like how I wrote this story after I completed it and I lost all motivation to continue my second story because of a whole bunch of things going on in my dumb life so hopefully remaking this story can bring back that spark again.

There is going to be big changes to this version of the story and I mean like major changes. Like MAJOR.

Anyways y'all know the drill.. One Piece does not belong to me at all, it belongs to the wonderful human being known as (G) Oda.

* * *

 **Monkey D. Luffy**

In the many years Garp had been a father, he was not prepared for the moment when he found out he was going to be a grandfather. Although technically he was already a grandfather to a three year old kid, he just was not the real grandfather of this specific child. But he did know the father of this child. But Garp wasn't concerned about this child. He was more concerned about his blood related grandchild.

Normally a grandfather would not be worried about his soon to be born grandkid but Garp was not normal. Nor was his son. Garp was a Vice Admiral for the Marines and was highly respected within the organization. His son had just recently left the Marines from the Admiral position and left on very bad terms. The higher ups gave Garp a lot of trouble so of course Garp was pissed off at his son. And not only was he pissed off that his son quit being an Admiral and left on horrible terms, his son had also endangered Garp's wonderful daughter-in-law.

His mind was going 100 miles a second and he was getting stressed. Something which was very rare for Garp. The only time he was stressed was when his beloved wife had passed away due to illness. And that was many years ago back when he was still quite young and when his son was only a child. Seeking to find some peace in his mind, the old Vice Admiral went to a cemetery and sat by a grave and started to talk to himself (in Garp's case he wasn't "talking to himself")

Looking at the tombstone he said "Rose my love, do you know we are going to be grandparents? That idiot son of mine decided to get his wife pregnant. Now I wouldn't mind being a grandpa for another child as well as Ace but Dragon decided to make the whole world his enemy."

Not looking for a reply, Garp was silent for a few seconds before he spoke again "Roger had the world hate him but no one except a handful know of Ace's existence. Same for our grandchild but I'm afraid." he chuckled "yes love I am afraid. Terrified. Because if people know the existence of this child then he might not live a long life and it would be much more dangerous for him than it already is. I'm terrified that somehow Ace might get found. I don't want to lose either of them." Looking at the tombstone, this time he stayed silent for a long period of time. Reminiscing about the past and what could have been future, he just stared directly at the tombstone of his wife.

Almost having a tear fall down from his eye from the remembering, Garp had felt a hand on his shoulder and instantly that tear went away. "You bastard… what are you doing here?"

"Hello Garp San." said a voice that Garp was not expecting to hear. He raised an eyebrow but then realization took over and it hit him that this voice should not be out here.

Quickly getting up "JASMINE MY DEAR WHY ARE YOU OUT HERE? YOU SHOULD BE RESTING IN THE HOUSE. WE NEED YOU HEALTHY!" Garp says concerned about the wellbeing of his daughter-in-law. "DRAGON YOU FUCKING IDIOT WHY DID YOU BRING HER HERE?! SHE SHOULD BE RESTING!"

She laughs "It's alright dad I'm fine. I wanted to come here." she says

"She wanted to say hi to mother. And I couldn't stop her." says Dragon. Garp turned and looked at his son with slight anger. He was not mad at Dragon for making the world his enemy nor was he mad that he quit the Navy and left on bad terms. He was mad that the life of the soon to be born child would be ruined once the world figured out who the father would be.

"Father I get why you're mad. I understand." Dragon sighs but Garp's eyes widen. After his mother passed away back when he was a child, Dragon always called Garp by his name, never father or dad. Today was the first time that Garp heard the title of Father coming from his own son. Both men wanted to say something but both were silent.

In Dragon's mind, he was thinking about how he shouldn't have said father meanwhile in Garp's mind he was still in shock to hear that word coming from his son. And while this silence was going on, Jasmine was giving her respects to Dragon's mother and by the time she was done, she noticed that there was a very awkward silence between both father and son which was very rare.

"Let's get back to the house I feel tired." she said trying to lighten up the tension and mood. Jasmine and Garp were talking the whole walk back from the cemetery to the house whole Dragon was listening but was thinking about many things during the walk back. Once they got it, he saw a fairly young Makino who was in her early/mid teens and Dadan the mountain bandit with a few of her crew members all sitting by a three year old child making sure he stayed put.

"Oi you little shit did you get yelled at?" says Dadan to Dragon

"Now Dadan-san it isn't nice to curse in front of a child." says the green haired teen who was playing with the child

"Ace is not an ordinary child, he is a demon baby who causes more trouble than Garp." she says with a serious tone but causes Jasmine to laugh.

Jasmine picked up Ace from Makino and said "Ace you're going to be an older brother. Aren't you excited?" she says happily "But I wonder if the two of you are going to meet." she says with a sadness in her voice as she placed down the child back to Makino. Which everyone but Garp understood why she was sad.

"They'll meet. Hell I can let these two grow beside each other and then become Marines." Garp says. "And they would be the best of Marines, unlike a few people."

Dragon looked at Garp and said "I know you mean well father but I will not tie my son to the Marines. Not after everything I've seen and everything you know and what we have both done.. I'm not letting ideologies being set on him."

Garp was slightly getting annoyed with Dragon and had hoped for the worst because that reply was not what Garp wanted to hear "So where will your child live huh? Clearly not with you seeing as it's dangerous enough already?"

Dragon replied "I made up my mind about that already."

"And?"

"What's the safest place on Earth you think your grandchild can live and grow up freely in?"

Getting annoyed "Well this IS East Blue, no one cares about this sea enough to be strong, so right here with me would be a safe bet. I trust Makino and Dadan with my life and Ace's life, I can trust them to take care of my grandchildren when I have to go." Dadan looked like she wanted to say something but she could feel the tension so she decided to remain silent.

"I know you trust them and so do I, Makino is practically my little sister and Dadan took care of me when I was growing up too. But I have another place in mind. Because in case something happens and the World Government finds out about the existence of my child, all hell would break loose and it'll be another Ohara."

Slowly starting to understand Dragon's reasoning, he sighs "Then where to?"

"Edward Newgates ship." Dragon says dead serious, looking right at his father

"YOU WANT TO GIVE YOUR CHILD TO WHITEBEARD?!" yells the old man "WHY?! JASMINE YOU ALLOW THIS TO HAPPEN?!"

Dragon was about to reply but Jasmine was faster "Dad look as much as we want to keep our baby or if not keep but let you take care of your grandchild, Dragon is right on this." she says with a confident voice but had sad eyes. Of course as a soon to be mother she wants to be with her child but she cannot due to many reasons

Dragon looked at his dad "Father I know you don't necessarily like pirates but it's the safest bet we have. Whitebeard is a man that is very understanding and cares not about one's bloodline."

Sighing again "What if Whitebeard were to say no?" Garp knew Newgate would agree to this, he just wanted to make sure his son was prepared for this instead of making this a rash decision.

"Would Roger have said no?" replies Dragon

Garp knew full well what Roger would have done in this situation. If Roger wasn't dying with that incurable disease he would have brought his wife Rogue and Ace to become pirates like him and his crew. "Why bring up Roger?" he asked because the Pirate King had nothing to do with this conversation

"Well because he and Edward are similar men with the same morals." which was true, Garp knew Roger would accept this request as well.

Garp was silent for a few moments, understanding where his son was coming from and somewhat accepting the fact that his grandchild was going to be living with pirates, he looks at Jasmine and says "I am going to keep tabs on the child. I will drop be one a while and take him to some island to spend time with."

She smiles "That's fine with us. We were going to tell you that anyways. After all the child is your family."

"You guys won't be able to see your child that often and I'm not going to see both of you as much so how are you going to keep check?"

"Well your baka son said knowing that the child is growing up with Whitebeard is enough, I on the other hand want to know as many details as possible. And to do that, I'm going to ask my useless brother to join the Whitebeard pirates."

"Oh I see." he says but then he remembered just who the brother was "Wait… Jones is alive?"

She laughs "Sadly yes. He's probably doing nothing though. After Rogers death he went back to his home island doing God knows what. Even though Jones is a quite messed up _thing_ I'd rather have him watch over our child instead of my family because well growing up in a house of assassins sucks and I don't want my son or daughter to be an emotionless and mindless killer like me or the rest of my family."

"Fair enough." says Garp "And tell that bastard to remain lowkey even when he gets on and becomes apart of the Whitebeard Pirates. I can't have him running free like how Roger let him."

Garp got up to leave the house but just as he was about to leave he looks ahead of him and says "Dragon you useless shit of a son, if you were looking for my blessing and acceptance to give your child Whitebeard, you have it. But understand this, there will be a point and time where he will want to know the truth behind his parents and he may hate you for this." and he leaves, closing the door behind him. But quickly opened the door to say one last thing "Oh and I'll be there when you give the child to Newgate." and then he finally left. Or so they thought when the door opened up again "Makino is the bar open?" says the Vice Admiral "I definitely need some drinks."

Makino got up to go with Garp to the town's famous Party Bar and placed Ace in the care of Dadan but Dadan wasn't too thrilled. "Oi Garp! Stop being a lazy geezer and take your first grandchild with you. I need my sleep and this brat hasn't let me." as she gets up and hands Ace to him as she exits the house herself. She looks at the soon to be parents "I'll be back later after a nap so don't wake me up." Then she looked at Garp "That includes you too Garp. If you wake me up I swear I will kill you."

"Yeah sure." says Garp uninterested in what Dadan had to say while he held Ace. Placing a kiss on the cheek of the three year old child he smiled inwardly. _You would have been a great big brother. But it is still early, you my get the chance at being one later on_ thought Garp as he held Ace and was walking with Makino towards the bar.

With the house now empty except Dragon and his wife, they went to the bedroom to rest. "Your father took that well." said Jasmine, as she laid down on her back and placed a blanket on herself, implying that she was due for a nap at any moment.

"That geezer surprised me too." Dragon says with a smile as he tucked his wife in and placed a kiss on her forehead. "Rest now, you'll need all of your strength soon." as he leaves and shuts the light off

* * *

A week later, the hospital room was filled with cries from a newborn baby that was currently being held by a doctor as the child was being cleaned up. "Congratulations it is a boy." says the doctor happily and hands the newborn to the mother who smiles weakly and kisses the baby on the lips. Staring at the baby who had stopped crying short after the kiss from his mother, she placed another kiss on the forehead and then handed the child to the father who took him with such gentle care and smiled at his son. Staring at the big brown eyes of the child, Dragon was mesmerised by such an innocent face that he almost wanted to say screw giving the child to Whitebeard and keep it instead but he knew that would be very hard and more dangerous for his wife and the child.

Looking at his father who was waiting impatiently to hold his grandson, Dragon smiled and gave Garp the child. And the moment he held the baby, Garp noticed his grandsons eyes. "You have your Grandmother's eyes." he says with a large smile across his face. "Hey kiddo, I'm your Jii-Chan." kissing the child on the cheek. Noticing that the childs eyes was turned towards Makino, he gives her the baby and says "That's your big sister, Makino-Chan." as she holds he baby and looks directly into the eyes of the child and instantly her heart was melting at how innocent the newborn looked. Dadan walked over with Ace in her hands and looked at the child. She, like the rest, looked right into the child's eyes and was amazed at how pure they were. How innocent and bright it was. She then showed Ace the child and Ace too looked into the eyes of the newborn and smiled and wave his hand as if he was saying hello. Garp said "That's your big brother, Ace. You won't see him often or at all until later on but he will always be your brother."

Handing Jasmine the child, she was surrounded by the others and said "We should name him."

"Well father, we decided where he would stay so you can decide his name." says Dragon with a smile

"You want me to name your kid?" He laughed "Well let's see." Garp thought for moment. "Ahh yes I have one. Welcome to the family, Monkey D. Luffy." as he smiled and everyone nodded at the name. It suit the child and Jasmine was fine with the name. It was a perfect name for the perfect child.

* * *

 ***4 months later***

"Purupurupurupuru… Purupurupurupuru… Purupurupu" a den den mushi snail rings as someone answers the call.

"Hello who is this yoi?" says a blonde man wearing a purple jacket and blue shorts

"Ah Marco it's me Garp. Hey listen tell your Captain I'm going to meet him in a few days. It's quite important and I can't talk about it through the phone. That is all." as Garp hangs up as the den den mushi goes "gachaa"

"That was odd…" said Marco aloud. He got out of his room to look for the other division commanders and he just happened to find the head chef "Hey Thatch where is Oyaji right now?" he yelled

"In his room." the man replied back as Marco made his way to his Captain's room. Knocking on the door and hearing enter, Marco opened the door and went inside to see the man known as Edward Newgate, also known as Whitebeard.

"What is it Marco?" asks the man

"Garp called… He said he was going to meet you in a few days and said it was important stuff that he couldn't talk about through the phone yoi."

"That's odd. In any case we'll hear him out. It has to be something big if he has to meet with us personally."

Marco took his leave and went back to the piled up paperwork in his room.

* * *

A couple of days later, the Moby Dick spotted a ship sailing towards them and Marco ad given everyone the order to be ready in case anything bad were to happen but Whitebeard did not look troubled at all. Garp after Roger's death never gave Whitebeard trouble. Most of the time the two had crossed paths, they would always be drinking buddies. However, it wasn't a terrible idea to have the rest of the crew on standby just in case something went wrong.

As the ship came near, Whitebeard had noticed that there were six people on deck. One being Garp and his right hand man. The other being a man in a green cloak that covered his whole face. A woman who wore a cloak and looked like she was carrying something but Whitebeard thought there was something familiar about her. He might have not known the woman personally but there was an aura she gave off that Whitebeard knew of but couldn't think of who or what it was. And the other two would be a young green haired girl that looked like she was in her teens and a relatively large woman that seemed to be a thug so Whitebeard thought she was an acquaintance of Garp.

"Permission to come on board Newgate?" says Garp with a smile on his face

"Granted."

"Alright Makino stay with Dadan on the ship, these are real pirates, I don't want anyone to look at you in certain ways." says Garp as the green haired girl looked scared but not really, it might have just been her first time around pirates. While he noticed that the woman with orange hair was more relaxed and felt kind of comfortable around the pirates.

Marco was confused to see three out of the six people on the Moby Dick and was seriously wondering what that nut case Garp wanted. But then he noticed something and he looked right at Whitebeard who also noticed as well.

"So Garp, what do I owe you this visit?" says Whitebeard as he sat on his throne, drinking some sake.

The man in the green cloak had removed the hood and had revealed his face. It was none other than Monkey D. Dragon, former Admiral of the Navy and now the leader of the so called Revolutionary Army. Whitebeard had a calm face and looked right at the man who had his usual expressionless face towards the older pirate. "Greetings Newgate. I wanted to talk to you about something, I had to make my father call your den den mushi because I don't know if the World Government could trace my call had I made it."

"Get to your point boy, I do not have all day." says Edward, taking another drink of sake

Jasmine removes the cloak that was covering her chest and revealed a small baby only a couple months old. Marco who had stood by his Captain was wondering what would happen and what they would ask for.

"This baby here is our son" says Dragon "We would ask if you would be so kind as to take care of him in our stead."

"And why's that yoi? We are not babysitters." The first division commander asks with his bored face but on the inside he was very confused.

"We know. But it's too dangerous if we should keep him. I do not want my sons life to be in constant danger."

"Then why not give him to your father? Garp can take care him."

"As much as I trust Garp and the two women on the ship to take care of the child, it is still too risky. The World Government knows I come from East Blue and from the same island where Garp lives and they might send a Cipher Pol out to look for any clues. I do not want them finding out my son."

"He's already prepared for worse case scenarios Newgate." says Garp "I can assure you if he could keep the child, he would. And he is right, it's only been a handful of months since he's quit the Marines and wanted to start this whole Revolutionary Army bullshit. The higher ups have been a huge pain in the ass, I'm lucky to have not been killed."

In Whitebeard's mind, he already accepted. He understood that the safest place on Earth for this child would be a place where the Marines rarely touch and even when there is an Admiral in his way, they do not want to fight Whitebeard alone. Even the other Yonko stay silent when Whitebeard crosses paths with them unless it is a fight. The World Government would not think to look for a child on the Moby Dick and his existence would remain hidden from the world except those that knew. He still remained silent though.

And then Jasmine spoke "Whitebeard-san, I understand we ask a big favor from you but we do not have other choices. If we did, we would have taken them already and wouldn't have bothered you with such a request. I just want our child to stay safe as long as possible, life free and have a good life. As much as I wanted to keep him, we just couldn't find any safer places. We looked into adoption but Dragon said that there is only one man in the World that he trusted besides Garp-san and that was you. The way you are with your crew and how you have a family to look after another."

Whitebeard looked at they eyes of the mother and knew that she was telling the truth. He was very big on family and even though they were pirates, the whole world knew who Whitebeard was and most of them didn't want to mess with him nor his crew.

He laughed "GURARARARA cheeky brats, I'll take your child as one of my own." with a smile on his face

Jasmine bowed her head as a sign of respect "Thank you Whitebeard-san."

"Pardon me" says Dragon "We do have supplies for the child that should last a while" as he said that the three remaining people on the ship brought out the supplies and took them to the Moby Dick where there were a few division commanders waiting to take it from them.

When the supplies were moved from one ship to the other, Makino and Dadan made their way towards Dragon and Garp to say their goodbyes to the baby. Makino placed a kiss on the cheek, Dadan just looked at the baby and said "Thank God I don't have to take care of this devil anymore."

Garp held the baby for a moment and said "I shall be seeing you soon. Eventually. Next vacation." and gave the child to Dragon who whispered something in the ear of the child and placed a kiss on the forehead.

Then he handed the baby onto the mother and she held her child one last time before saying goodbye. Her eyes were filled with sadness because she was parting with her son but she knew that it would be best for the child to live here. Placing a kiss on the lips of the child she handed Marco the baby and said "I love you Lu." and placed one last kiss on the forehead before Marco could hold him.

Once the baby was in Marco's hand, he looked right into the innocent big brown eyes of the child and was in pure awe. Thatch was nearby and he looked at the baby and said "Those eyes are something huh." with a smile on his face.

Dragon and the rest were now boarding their own ship and Garp was the last to board but just before he did Whitebeard had asked "What's his name?"

Garp turned around and smiled "I named him myself ya know. Anyways it's Monkey D. Luffy."

Whitebeard laughed. He knew full well what a person with the initials D could do. He also knew that life on the Moby Dick would change. As everyone had waved their goodbyes and the ships went their own way, Marco had handed the baby to Whitebeard and as the pirate held the baby, he looked into Luffy's eyes and laughed "those eyes could kill someone. Welcome to the family Monkey D. Luffy."

* * *

 **A/N Okay so the first part was OOC for Garp but I wanted to write about his weak side for once and to show his fears. As a man who would always put work over his family even when he didn't want to, he had to. So it was odd trying to write that first part.**

 **But anyways I hoped yall liked that chapter. Leave some reviews and stuff. I shall see you next time in a week or so, maybe less. Depending on how fast I can write these chapters.**


	2. Chapter 2

Aye man shoutout to Sudhush. Thanks for the review like you always did in my other story. I honestly appreciate it and your kind words, you're seriously the best.

There will be an A/N at the bottom explaining this chapter because this chapter is long and how this is an important chapter for this story moving forward.

Hope you guys enjoy.

One Piece does not belong to me, it belongs to Oda sensei.

* * *

 **Eyes and Curses**

 ***2 Months Earlier***

"Are you sure your brother would be in a place like this?" asks Dragon who had a look of confusion on his face as he and his wife had wandered around for about an hour and a half on an endless jungle that seemed to be unpopulated.

"Well this is the perfect island for him. A lot of large and dangerous animals, the beautiful jungle surrounding the area, there probably is a cave somewhere deep on the other side and most likely a beach on the other." she says, quite proud of herself knowing what types of islands her brother likes. "Oh and there's no people around. He hates people." she added.

"Speaking of animals… We haven't run into anyone dangerous." Dragon says, using his Observation Haki to find any animals that fit the description of dangerous.

"We entered this island from the East and we headed Southwest once we landed. Where we put our ship was in a river area that leads to the ocean, hence why we were surrounded by the jungle. The more dangerous animals are either on the North, South or West." Jasmine says as she continued to lead the way

"How do you know that?"

"The small river area where we came from was salt water. Animals don't survive on salt water." Dragon was looking at the back of her head and smiled. He loved it when she talked about anything in detail. And seeing that they were on a pretty long walk, he wanted to listen to her some more.

And his wish came true when she stopped for a moment to look at a compass and started to talk again. "But knowing that there is a waterfall on the North because we could hear it. Well I heard it, I don't know about you. But it also made a sound indicating that the water was going inside a cave, it gave off a weird noise so that is what I'm assuming. Knowing that there is a cave means that there aren't that many animals in that area because the animals in the cave are probably more dangerous than the ones outside."

"How do you all of this?"

Ignoring his question "The West side of this island has a beach or has an area where there is water coming out of because when we got off the ship, I noticed that there was this small opening where water was going into so there may be a beach on the West side or maybe I'm completely off.. But if there is indeed water coming out in the West side that means it is again saltwater. So no dangerous animals there as well."

"Um excuse me… How do you all of this?" asks Dragon again because he actually wanted to know how his wife knew this.

Again ignoring the question she says "That means that the South part of the island holds fresh water. That is where all the dangerous animals will be. We are headed Southwest because if there is indeed a beach on west side of this island then that is where my brother will be. He likes to live close by to dangerous animals and loves beaches. He prefers animals over people and I honestly would not be surprised if he managed to tame them."

"I'm pretty sure I got lost somewhere in that explanation but as long as we don't cross any dangerous animals, I'm fine with that."

The walk had gone for another half an hour before the two of them heard the sound of crackling fire. They both knew it was not night time but hearing the crackles of fire made them kind of worry. Jasmine pulled out a knife and Dragon was ready to fight. The noises got louder and they heard a slight roar and the two of them were ready to fight. They then heard the screech of a large bird and stopped moving. They both could tell that the animal that had roared was slowly creeping up towards them. Dragon pulled out a small pistol from his belt and was ready to take aim while Jasmine had brought the knife up and was into a fighting stance.

Concentrating forward, their backs were completely open. Feeling something sharp, metal and cold on their backs, their eyes widened. "So you hear a bird screech and a lion roar and you stop in your tracks and leave your backs wide open?" says a voice "Shit no wonder you two idiots love living in cities and towns where you know your backs are safe." the man says as he puts his sword in its sheath.

Jasmine turned around as fast as she could, dropping her knife and hugging the man. "Jones you bastard! I should have known it was you.

The man laughed and returned the hug back to the woman "Who else do you think would purposely live in a dangerous island like this?" asks the man as he let go after Jasmine let go of the hug. "How'd you guys get here?" he greeted Dragon with an expressionless look but gave him a head nod

"Well our little boat is in the East side of this island. We were actually on our way to see Whitebeard." she says

"Why do the two of you want to see the Old Man?"

"Well we plan on giving him our kid to take care of and I just happened to have your Eternal Pose of this island."

"Oh nice" he says until realization occurred "Wait a second you said 'our kid'... You have a kid?" he said happily "Well congratulations Jazz you have finally became a mother." he hugged her again and this time shook Dragons hand and congratulated him as well. "Wait but why give him to Whitebeard? Why not raise him yourself."

"It's too dangerous. I quit the Marines and left on bad terms." says Dragon "I don't want to risk the safety of our child."

"Oh right… Why not leave your boy or girl with Garp then?"

"If we left our boy with Garp" says Dragon "There is a chance the World Government could send a Cipher Pol to the island because the same island Garp lives in is the one I come from."

"Makes sense." as he walks and tells them to follow "So where is my little nephew right now?" he asked as they walked to where they heard the crackling fire where they saw a bunch of lions and a really big bird casually sitting down right beside a large male lion, both were sharing a piece of meat.

"With Garp and two others on the island next to this one restocking on supplies." says Dragon as he looked shocked at the scene going on in front of him.

"Ahh. Makes sense." says Jones as he takes a bite out of some cooked meat and offers some food and water for the two which they take.

"Anyways Jones, I wanted to ask you for a favor." says Jasmine

"Let me guess, since you won't be able to look after your son, you want me on the Whitebeard ship to be the one that looks after him in your stead and give you calls on his progression and whatnot." he says enjoying the meat "Oi Snow, what animal is this meat from?" he asked the lion who just pointed his head towards an animal that was unknown by the Dragon and Jasmine. "Oh you guys took _THAT_ down? That's

the bastard kept ruining my crops… Anyways, I'll do it. I want to see my nephew and I wouldn't mind having Whitebeard as a Captain after Roger."

Both Dragon and Jasmine say thanks for the favor and the hospitality. "I'll get you guys to your boat on the East, I won't be coming to sea with you though. I need to do a few small things first and then I shall make my way over to Whitebeard."

They both agreed and got up. Jones did too and said "Oi Lanny, take them to their ship. Keep an eye out for Snow. I'll be riding him to lead the way." and with that the bird got up and so did the lion. The bird sat in a way where both Jasmine and Dragon could get on while Jones got on the back of the lion. "I won't be able to say goodbye because I have to run off to the Northeastern part of the island so we'll say them now. Later sis, I already gave out more hugs today than I have in two years so you're not getting another one. Oh and when you get to your ship, point towards the area where you would like to land and Lanny will drop you guys off there. And also when your sons birthday?"

"May 5th." says Jasmine and Jones had raised an eyebrow for a second and then nodded towards the both of them and said goodbye and ran off. The bird flew into the air while the lion was running towards the ship.

 _May 5th huh… Let's hope this kid doesn't have it too_ thought Jones as he led the way for the bird to the ship.

* * *

 ***3 Months Later***

Luffy had been on the ship for a month now and surprisingly that month was peaceful. Too peaceful. Even with the baby on board, it almost wasn't noticeable. Of course the whole ship knew that there was a baby and they were expecting a loud and annoying 5 month old child but surprisingly Luffy was a quiet one. He rarely cried and was always peaceful. The main noticeable noise that Luffy would make was laugh. Luffy was a happy baby that smiled and laughed when he was awake and asleep. His innocent face, smile and eyes melted the hearts of many fearsome pirates who were known as the Whitebeard pirates. His smile and eyes even caught Newgate himself by surprise at how innocent it was. Every time anyone would stare at Luffy's eye for a long period of time they would say that Luffy's eyes give off a glint and look that had made him look more innocent than he already is.

The three people that were the head caretakers for Luffy was Marco, the first division commander. Thatch, the head chef and commander for the 4th division and Mikaella (or Mika for short) who was the head doctor. If the three were busy then they would give him to Whitebeard to look after or other commanders who were not busy.

All 5 month old Luffy wanted to do was eat, sleep and play. Marco could get a lot of his paperwork done during the times Luffy napped and slept. Luffy ate a lot so Thatch would usually be the one feeding him because Thatch felt like it was his duty as a chef to "never let anyone go hungry" while Mika mostly played with Luffy. All three of them did everything depending on how the days went but they were glad Luffy was always peaceful.

When Luffy would be out on deck with one of the three, people would always look by and stare at the child. Seeing at how young Luffy was, everyone acted very different around him. They would love it when he laughed and smiled and their whole tough guy look was gone right out the window as they would hold and play with the baby for a short bit if Marco, Thatch or Mika would allow it. They rarely let anyone else but Whitebeard hold the baby. They didn't know why but it was just natural for them to be protective.

Thatch would always laugh when Marco was protective of Luffy. He would call him a mother hen but Thatch knew he was the exact same when it came to the five month old boy. He just didn't expect Marco of all people to be protective. However, the two always acted like older brothers around Luffy while Mika may have acted as the mother. Whether it be because she was a girl or it just so happend after seeing Luffy, Mika became more motherlike and parent like for the child. Which wasn't odd. Only a few people know about Mika's past and Marco and Thatch were one of those few people besides Whitebeard and the other nurses and doctors on board who knew.

Whitebeard had noticed that ever since Luffy had become a member of the Whitebeard family, Mika was smiling a lot more than she usually did. He noticed that Marco would complain less about the others and worry about Luffy more so rather than the others on this ship except the division commanders. Thatch was always happy even before Luffy came along but he did notice the attitude of Thatch changed. Thatch used to be a guy that was smiling all the time but still reserved even though he was friendly with everyone and would play pranks at anyone at any time when given the opportunity. Ever since Luffy came in his life Thatch was now a bit more protective and like Marco focused more on the boy than the others. Whitebeard was happy that his family grew and was becoming more family like now that they actually had a child with them all the time. Whitebeard was always the proud father of the bunch but he felt even prouder seeing how things were with everyone on the ship.

This day in particular was a very relaxed day. The sun was still up and the weather was nice after having to go through 3 days of nonstop rain and storms. Marco was able to do his paperwork within those three days, Thatch wasn't busy with cooking and Mika had no patients to look after so they all were spending time with five month old Monkey D. Luffy.

The four of the were in Marco's room since his room was the largest outside of Pops' room. Mika and Marco were sitting on opposite sides of the bed and put Luffy in the middle with a few toys and Thatch was sitting on the floor, but leaning towards the open middle area of the bed that was not occupied by Luffy.

Out of the many stuffed animals and play toys he had, Luffy was mostly interested with a small rubber like ball and kept hitting it around to see it roll on the bed. Eventually if it rolled too far for him, one of the three adults would hit it back towards Luffy and each time they did that Luffy would smile and laugh. Each time Luffy hit the ball he smiled. Luffy was smiling. All the time.

"You know" Thatch says "I can never get tired of this brats smile." he smirked and let out a chuckle

"His laughs too yoi."

"But his most powerful weapon is his eyes." says the doctor "Those huge innocent eyes and that face just melts your heart." and both Marco and Thatch agreed. Even the whole crew would agree. Every time someone would look into the eyes of Luffy, they would instantly feel like smiling or be happy.

"When our little brat gets older, he's going to be very popular with the ladies." Thatch looked at Luffy while talking to the others

"Yeah about that yoi… He's not dating anyone until he's at least 16."

"Why 16?"

"I don't want him to end up like you. Luffy will grow up into a fine young man."

"And to be a fine young man, you need to have some experience in life to make you understand how women work."

Mika looked right at Thatch and said "And just how do women work Thatch? Please enlighten me with your wisdom."

"Yeah, I'd honestly love to hear this yoi."

"Well then" Thatch looks at his two family members with a smile on his face "See woman don't 'work'. You cannot figure that out. But what you will find out is that women are crazy. For example, our lovely sister Mikaella here." and before he could continue, Mika had slapped him in the face which made Luffy laugh loud

"Oh that made him laugh.. Ne Marco let's kick his ass to make Luffy laugh and smile. Sounds good?" she said in a sadistic way

"SEE THIS IS EXACTLY WHAT I MEAN! MIKA HERE IS A PSYCHO!" he said jokingly and she grabbed Thatch by his shirt, looking dead in his eyes she smiled in the most terrifying way that Thatch had started to scream in various tones and lost his voice many times. Luffy was enjoying this and kept on laughing and clapping and looking at Marco who was thoroughly enjoying this just as much as Mika and Luffy were.

Mika knew Thatch wasn't afraid of getting hit by her. She's knows Thatch has a higher pain tolerance than the crew besides Marco and Pops. She took her hand and raised it, she looked at Thatch in the eyes for a second and then turned towards his hair. And if Thatch wasn't scared before, he was now utterly terrified. His eyes widened as much as they could and the look on his face was with pure horror "MIKA NOOOOO PLEASE! NOT THE HAIR!" he yells out in the highest pitched voice he could do making Luffy laugh even harder now and again Marco felt very happy that Thatch was getting beat up by their sister.

Taking her hand, Mika had reached for the pompadour and placed it on Thatch's head and had started to mess with his hair, causing the chef to scream. Marco couldn't hold in his laughter anymore and was laughing until he had a couple of tears running down his face while Luffy on the other hand laughed as hard as he could because he thought Thatch's face was funny and the noise he was making was even funnier.

After Mika had completely ruined Thatch's hair he had run as quick as he could out of Marco's room to get to his room to fix his hair. As the man left the room, Marco and Luffy had both stopped laughing, breathing slightly heavily because of how much they had laughed. Mika had picked up Luffy and said "It's food time Luffy. Let's go and feed you." she said with a smile and kissed Luffy on the cheek and the forehead.

Marco got up as well, seeing that Mika would be taking care of the child, he decided that he should go check up on his Captain and see what they were going to do next. As he closed his door, he saw Whitebeard on his chair and called Marco over. When he got there, he heard Vista say "The ship is getting closer Pops."

"It's a small ship. I doubt there are going to be many people on it. But if they are threatening us then feel free to take that ship down." Marco looked towards the sea and saw a relatively small ship that was sailing towards them. He knew by the looks of it that the people on that ship aren't looking for a fight. So he remained calm and went back to his expressionless face after having laughed so much just moments before.

* * *

Being out at sea was odd for Jones. After the execution of his captain Gol D. Roger, it felt weird for Jones to become a pirate once more. But he knew that he would have to act differently around the Whitebeard crew unlike how he was with Roger. Although both of them were the same type of Captains, the only difference was that Roger knew about the past that Jones had lived through. And because of that, his young age and the era they were in, Roger had allowed Jones to run as wild as he could under the name of the Roger Pirates. He knew Whitebeard would do the same but as he was now much older than he was when he first joined the Roger Pirates, Jones was going to be a lot more relaxed. And plus he had a nephew to look after and take care of.

Speaking of said nephew, he totally forgot to ask the name of the young boy. On top of not knowing the name of the child, he was preparing himself being surrounded by strangers. After Roger had died, the first thing he decided to do was marry a woman that he fell in love with during his journey as a member of the Roger Pirates. But she had eventually got killed by Marines and the townsfolk once they had realized that there was an infamous pirate living on their island.

He then left to keep himself in isolation and surrounded himself in an island known for having the most dangerous animals in the world. He got used to having animals around him and swore to never hurt them unless it was absolutely necessary. He then ended up befriending the actual King of the Jungle and his whole pride and made a friend out of a bird that tried to eat him. Once he tamed them both he felt like that was all the company he needed.

He only knew a handful of the Whitebeard Pirates. He knew Marco and had respect for the man, he knew the head chef but could not remember his name and he remembered their swordsman Vista. And of course he knew the Old Man. The Old Man wondered why such a young kid would be on Roger's ship and now he has an infant on his own. That thought made Jones smile.

As his small ship was sailing, he could see the Moby Dick in his sights. It would be about a few hours before they would notice that there is a small ship sailing towards them so he looked at the bright blue sky and decided to whistle Binks Sake, his favorite song.

The small ship was getting closer and closer to the Moby Dick by the hours that had passed and the time was about noon. Using his Haki, he noticed the people on the Moby Dick except a rare few had their weapons drawn and aimed their cannons towards him.

Now standing up, he looked right past the pirates and his eyes caught Marco who was standing right by the World's Strongest Man who was sitting on his throne chair like he always was. "Whitebeard may I have permission to come on board?" asks Jones, ignoring everyone and looking at the Captain.

"Granted." says Newgate as Jones got off his ship and onto the Moby. "So what does Roger's cursed brat have to do with me? Are you here for my head?" he says with a slick smirk

Jones chuckled "I mean no disrespect by this but if I was here for your head, I would have already gotten it." and looked right into the eyes of the Captain with no fear. This caused most of the people on deck to be angry but Marco was calm and relaxed and so was Whitebeard. The both of them knew he meant no harm with that statement.

Whitebeard and Marco had noticed something though. They had felt this aura before and felt it very recently. Marco whispered something to Whitebeard and the man just nodded, looking right at Jones while Marco was talking to him.

"Anyways um I'm here because my sister sent me here. She said something about having her son on board and she wanted me to be a lookout for her. And by lookout I mean tell her literally everything about the kid. So is it possible for me to join your crew?"

"Your sister? Who's your sister yoi?"

"Jasmine… The wife of Dragon. Garp's daughter in law. She came here a month ago to drop the boy off." he said confused because he was sure that Jasmine would be the one to send the baby off. Marco looked surprised. He didn't expect Jones to have a sister.

"GURARARARA so that's why that brat's aura was familiar. But yes you can join the crew. You can run free like you once did with Roger."

"I thank you Whitebeard, but that life is something I gave up." he says with a sad tone, remembering his wife. "Anyways, do you guys mind if I see my nephew?"

While the rest of the crew was suspicious, the division commanders were not. They knew of the man known as 'Roger's Cursed Demon' but they also knew that he was a good man. They didn't exactly know why he was called the Cursed Demon. All they heard were some rumors about him becoming the actual devil. Marco took Jones and took him to the infirmary and Jones thought something was wrong with the boy.

"Is everything alright?" concerned about his nephew

"Oh yeah yoi.. The person taking care of Luffy at the moment is the head doctor of the ship." and they soon entered where there were a lot of empty beds and Marco kept walking by to a pretty big room. Knocking on the door he said "Mika yoi it's me. How's Luffy?"

 _Luffy huh. Nice name._ The door had opened and he he didn't know whether it was by coincidence or if his past was haunting him but the woman who was holding the child looked a lot like his wife. The light brown skin tone and light brown hair with hints of a dark blonde color at the tips, brown eyes, small round nose and big lips. And on top of that she wore glasses, just like his wife did. He had to quickly get out of that thought and he looked towards the child and was instantly mesmerized. "HOLY SHIT MY SISTER IS YOUR MOTHER?" looking now at the innocent eyes of Luffy and the big smile that he wore across his face like he always did. _Those eyes look amazing but there's something strange about them. That little glint there… He has it too. Fuck. Should I tell Jazz…_

"Who's this?" asked Mika and Marco replied by saying that he was the uncle of Luffy and the brother to Jasmine who was the mother. He also told her about how Jones was apart of the Roger Pirates. Placing a kiss on the cheek of his nephew, he handed Mika the boy and looked right into the eyes of Mika and muttered something under his breath. Mika found that odd but decided not to question it and Jones looked a bit embarrassed which was odd for him too.

Marco read the atmosphere and took Jones and said "I'll give you a tour of the ship so you know your way around." Jones gave Marco a silent thank you and followed him out of the infirmary. As the two were walking, Marco first showed Jones his room. "Usually all the division commanders get a room to themselves while the rest are in a room with a bunch of bunk beds, we currently don't have enough space for you so we are giving you the empty room the belonged to the former 2nd division commander yoi."

"Thank you Marco, but I don't need a room nor a bed. You can save that for another person or something. I just need a place where I can put my bag down."

Confused Marco asked "Where are you going to sleep?"

Looking at the first division commander, he sighed "Fuck it I might as well tell you, we are going to be crew mates so might as well get to know each other. I don't sleep." he says. He didn't know why he was able to trust Marco so easily. Marco looked like a trustworthy man so he just decided to tell him everything to avoid future possible suspicion.

"I don't usually sleep much either because I'm busy with things but it's good to have a place to rest in."

"The problem is… I can't sleep. It's been 3 years since I last slept and last sat down on a bed."

"How is that humanly possible. Everyone needs to sleep at some point."

"See I used to sleep for hours on a daily. I loved sleep. But one day, something fucked up happened and I practically died on the inside. This happened after Roger's death. I was already known as the 'Cursed Demon' and I was a horrible person back then but things happened which made me worse. It crushed the last bits of my human soul that remained and really made me into a demon."

"That doesn't explain how you don't sleep though yoi."

"See you're a Zoan user right. Well so am I. I can literally become the Devil. A lot of people think that my curse is being the Devil but that is actually the powers of the fruit I ate. Now to use a power of a Zoan, we both had to 'unlock' the ability to use it right. Kind of like how a Logia user learns how to use their power. Besides me becoming the actual Devil physically and being able to control fire to a certain extent and some other weird shit, I can also teleport from places but to travel, I have to go through Hell, which is a real place filled with some more weird and horrible shit. However I had to be in my Devil form to actually do that. But I've practiced and used my ability so much that I can actually teleport without having to change my physical self. And also this devil fruit helped my sense of smell but in a bad way because I can smell people's blood even if they aren't bleeding. It's weird don't ask. I don't even know how that works. "

"When my body gets so tired to a point where I feel like I'll die or become unconscious or anything like that, I just teleport myself to Hell to wake me back up. Being in that shithole actually gives my body the stimulation of sleep so it basically wakes me up but I'm awake and conscious while this happens."

"So basically you going to this Hell place is like a normal person falling asleep? But you don't actually fall asleep though right."

"Yeah pretty much."

Hearing this Marco was very curious at just was type of life Jones had lived. There was something to him that screamed out "Help Me" but Marco didn't know what to do and if there was anything that could be done to help Jones. Instead he remained silent.

"May I ask what your actual curse is yoi?" curious as to what more things there could be about this man

"It's an insane blood lusting rage. An addiction to killing. And not just shooting a man to kill him or stab him with a sword. No. It's much more brutal. The smell of blood makes me want to start killing someone. I've learned to control it over the years but Roger let me run free and wild even though he knew. And plus my life before that I had no restrictions and was living a fucked up way of life. It still runs in me to this day and won't leave me until I die. The second I entered the ship I was hit with the smell of everyone's blood and I had urges to kill all of you." Marco was surprised but at the same time he knew that Jones was a vicious enemy to make out of. "I isolated myself from people for the past three years and this was the main reason why. And coming back to civilization it just feels weird to me. I need to get used to the smell before I end up doing something stupid."

"How did you get it?"

"Well there is this superstition in my family. On May the 5th many years ago and I'm talking about a very long time ago, it was said that the Devil had come to that island where my family had lived and slaughtered everyone on this island by possessing one of our ancestors. The only ones that were able to stop him were my other ancestors that had eventually got hold of the man and exorcised the devil off of him. But the man was never the same. Just before the devil was cast off, he looked right at my family and said that he would curse them for all generations to come and whoever was born on May 5th would be cursed."

"A couple of years later, this man had a son born on May the 5th and had the same eyes that his father had on the day he went on a rampage to kill everyone. So the family assumed this guy was cursed and made sure that no one from the Davy family -my family- was not allowed to bare a child on the 5th of May."

"Fast forward to the time I was born, I was born on May the 5th. My family didn't believe in the curse until eventually one day I just snapped and went on a killing spree and had same the same glint in my eyes. I was only 4 at the time but I was the only child at that time. My father sent me away and never spoke of it to the rest of the family. I eventually met my sister while I was apart of the Roger Pirates and I kind of told her about the curse but not exactly."

Every time Roger was in a fight, the first person that was ready to cut heads off was Jones. He was known to be sadistic and dangerous. But Marco knew there was much more to Jones than that. "But I will tell you this. Luffy has it to. How do I know, well because I had those same eyes when I was a child. Now his eyes are oddly innocent. I think he may have gotten those eyes from Dragon's mom because no one in my family has those eyes nor does Dragon or Garp. But when you stare into his eyes, do you see like a dark or black glint?"

"Kind of yoi. Like if you were to stare at him for long you can see that his pupils give off this glint."

"That's the same thing I have.. My sister doesn't know about the glint nor does she know about Luffy having it. But know this Marco and keep this between the two of us. As he gets older we have to be the ones that show him good. I wasn't taught any better up until I met Roger but by then it was too late and that is why he let me run free."

Marco was listening to Jones and could almost hear a cry for help. But this time it wasn't for himself but for his nephew. He easily understood that Jones did not want Luffy to become like him. He looked at Jones and smiled "We won't let him. I won't. You won't. Pops won't. Thatch won't and Mika won't. Hell this whole crew won't. Even if they don't know what's going on, we can show him good and teach him how to control it yoi." he looks at Jones and gives him a confident look "Anyways let's continue with this tour. You can keep your bag here for now, I'll find a place for it later."

The two of them went on the full tour of the ship until it was about just past sunset. Both men were talking about their adventures they've had so far and a lot of other things. Jones felt glad he found a friend in Marco. However when Marco had told him that the main caretakers for Luffy were he, Thatch and Mika, Jones was slightly hesitant to be around her but he didn't say it nor show it. He just hoped this was a one time thing and would never happen again.

They kept walking around the ship until they met Thatch up just before dinner. When he saw Marco walking he said "Hey Marco man, it's dinner time."

"Your hair looks pretty yoi." says the man as he looked at Thatch's messy hair

"Oh fuck off you turkey. Oh hey um Jones-san, dinners ready if you would like to eat."

"Thanks for letting me know. I'll be there shortly." after seeing the full ship more than once, he decided to lead the way to the galley where all the other pirates would be eating but just as he was about to enter he had stopped. He took a deep breath before walking in and as he walked in, he saw the Whitebeard pirates all eating and sitting together and having fun. He went towards the area where the chefs would give the pirates the food and he got his plate and today for food there was pasta. He missed eating pasta so he was happy to eat. He had noticed that Marco had sat at the table with the other division commanders and noticed that the head doctor lady was holding Luffy while everyone was giving the child all the attention in the world.

He took a seat where he could get a view of Luffy. But there was something in him that was nagging his mind. His mind kept telling him to kill and he could smell blood from someone that was close by him. However this scent of blood was odd. Paying no mind to eat, he dug in his food and he heard a laugh from a man beside him. "The food isn't going to run away you know." the relatively large man says. Jones looked at the man in the eyes and his mind was racing. Wanting to kill him at that very moment. But Jones knew he had to control this. But the blood he could smell from this man was strong. Taking a look at the food to change his thoughts he said to the man "I haven't eaten proper food like this in 3 years. I'm stuffing my face and probably going for seconds and more if there is any left over."

"3 years is a long time." says the man

"Yes. Yes it is."

* * *

Alright folks, that is where I am leaving this chapter. Long chapter I know and different but the A/N coming up will explain everything.

 **A/N: Okay so basically I know this chapter more so focuses on Luffy's uncle Jones but that is because I wanted to explain this whole curse thing. It's gonna be important in the story moving forward for Luffy's character and it will be brought up again in the future.**

 **If you guys need a more clear more explanation as to what it actually is.. The curse is a blood lust that makes him go crazy and start killing people until somehow stopped by others. Basically a psychopath that loves to kill people for no reason.**

 **A clear explanation for Jones' power... Well basically it is a Zoan fruit and he transforms into the Devil (as in Satan) and he's able to control fire to a certain extent but not like how Ace or Sabo could. His sense of smell for blood increased which helps make his curse stronger which is why he had trouble on the ship. He can also teleport to places but has to go through Hell to be able to teleport.**

 **Jones has insomnia and since he's already a whack character, I decided to make him literally not be able to sleep. Now I know that is humanly not possible to go on without sleeping at all but I added how going to Hell is basically like his sleep.**

 **Well why did I want Luffy to have this curse because that's nothing like his character.. Well the both the anime and manga he's gone rage mode when his Nakama are involved in some deep shit like Nami with Arlong and Robin with CP9 and the World Government. It's a rated M story so might as make this bloody because Pirates do kill people.**

 **Anyways this was one of the few rare chapters that isn't fully about Luffy. But for the next good while of chapters the focus will be on Luffy and his age, interactions with the rest of the crew/commanders, his adventures and how he is slowly starting to grow up.**

And again please leave a follow/favorite/review. Thanks for your time, I hope you guys enjoyed this chapter. And I shall see you next time for chapter 3.


	3. Chapter 3

Aye yo real shit man **Sudhush** really my fav person out here. Always leaving reviews and ideas and stuff. Thanks man, you honestly the best.

To **Mikewebb1211** : The answer to your question will be answered in a few chapters or so. And thank you for giving this story a shot

To **Randomly Talented** : I have things planned for Luffy in those terms.

To **Guest** : Dark Dark fruit huh… Interesting…

I was out early with that chapter… Like wayyy earlier than I thought so hope yall liked that. And I think this chapter was a late release? Not too sure… I didn't have a set date on which I wanted this out

This is gonna be another long chapter. First part will be about Luffy, second part will be about something else, third part will be more Luffy.

PS… There will be a teaser at the end of this for the next chapter… stay tuned for that.

A fair warning that this chapter has some VERY dark themes and is bloody.

And as always One Piece does not belong to me.

* * *

 **Nightmares and Birthdays**

Jones had been on the ship for about 3 months now meaning that Luffy was now an 8 month old boy. And the once quiet and always peaceful child now became a babbling, crawling baby that would love to babble random things trying to have conversations with everyone and everything. Sometimes the ship would be in dead silence because most days were calm and peaceful and out of nowhere the sounds of laughter and baby talk could be heard clearly. But today was a normal day where most of the pirates were out on deck, some were training, other just doing their jobs and casually hanging around, minding their own business. However, today was slightly different. Luffy was with Whitebeard instead of his usual caretakers (Marco, Mika, Jones and Thatch.)

Marco was in deep sleep because he pulled an all nighter doing paperwork and he didn't want to be bothered by anyone so he fell asleep. Mika was busy with a few patients who recently got injured and sick due to a massive storm that occurred recently. It was an hour and a half before lunch time so Thatch was needed in the kitchen while Jones was sent out with the 5th division to get more supplies for the ship from the island they had just arrived on.

Luffy was placed on Whitebeard's lap for an hour or so by now and during that hour Luffy seemed to be having an intense conversation with Whitebeard. Now, the older man did not understand what Luffy was saying but he was keeping Luffy entertained by telling him stories and just talking to the young one. However at one point when Whitebeard was telling Luffy a story about his adventures. Whitebeard was telling simple details of the story while the young 8 month old was paying full attention to the older man and would interrupt with babbles as if to ask a question which Whitebeard would somehow understand and explain an answer.

Other pirates on the ship were looking at Luffy and Whitebeard together and they couldn't help but smile seeing their Pops with their youngest brother. Whitebeard really was a father. At least to Luffy, Whitebeard would be the only father he would know of. The others had a previous life before they became members of the Whitebeard Pirates, but for Luffy this will be the life he grows up with. The life that he knows. And the bond that Whitebeard and Luffy would have would be more realistic in terms of father and son.

When Marco finally had woken up from his nap due to Thatch calling for lunch, both he and Marco had saw Whitebeard with his youngest son. Both of the smiled and made their way to the galley without saying a word. Mika came out of the infirmary and saw Marco and Thatch walk by with smiles on their faces but she didn't see Luffy with them. Before she could ask, her eyes went towards Whitebeard who was smiling like a proud father as he was holding his son, making his way to the galley. Mika smiled and made her way to the galley as well.

By the time Whitebeard made it to the galley, as he was walking very slowly and carefully, he took his usual place where the division commanders had sat down and in his arms was little 8 month old Luffy. Both of them seemed to be having conversations about the adventures Whitebeard had been on. Everyone also decided to listen on and eat their food while Luffy was being fed by Thatch who had come to sit down and listen to Pops story. Everyone loved this moment. It was rare that Luffy was with Whitebeard because Luffy would usually be with one of his four caretakers so this moment was rare and special for everyone.

When Whitebeard was done with his long story, it seemed that Luffy was trying hard to keep himself awake while the older man was talking but as soon as he finished, Luffy hugged the stomach of Whitebeard and quickly fell asleep. Whitebeard stayed still for a short while until Marco, Thatch and Mika got up to put Luffy to sleep. Marco picked him up carefully, trying not to wake him up. Mika helped Marco open the doors while Thatch had already run off to Marco's room, fixing the crib that Luffy slept on.

When they tucked Luffy in, each of the three placed a kiss on Luffy's cheek and closed the door. Marco was going to stay to keep an eye out for Luffy but he already had slept in so he really needed to check things out with Pops and the rest of the division commanders and check the supplies that had just been bought. Thatch needed to get back in the kitchen to help out and Mika had patients to look after. Normally Jones would look after Luffy, but for some odd reason, he was not here.

Not even 10 seconds later, Jones had appeared with a towel in his hand and wiping sweat off of his face "Hey guys… Did I miss anything."

Mika was the first to reply "Yes you did. Pops was with Luffy this morning and it was the cutest thing ever. Pops was telling him stories and both of them were talking about them and then when he was done, Luffy fell asleep on Pops." and then she walked out of the room relatively quickly.

"Damn… Wish I could have seen it." he says. "If you guys are busy, I'll look after Lu."

"Yeah I gotta get going yoi. I slept in today."

"Wow… You slept in? That's new."

"Some people like their sleep. Unlike others." he and Thatch chuckled and left the room. Jones had been on the ship for a few months now but he still never sat or laid in a bed and today was no different. Since this was Marco's room, he had decided to take a seat on the chair and put his feet up on the desk that was in the room, carefully placing them to not move or ruin any of the paperwork on the desk.

* * *

The days before May 5th were chaotic. Today however, was the 4th of May, which was even crazier. The Whitebeard Pirates had went to many islands trying to find the right gift for the soon to be one year old brother of theirs and most of them found nothing to give Luffy for his big day tomorrow. So when the Pirates got to their new island, each division went to different parts of the same island looking for a gift. The division commanders would buy a gift and the rest of the division would buy one gift on behalf of the group and there ensued many arguments as to what the soon to be one year old would like. And just around this time, Luffy's grandfather had shown up. He came with the drinks as he was wearing his vacation clothing.

Garp was holding Luffy and had him on his lap while he was sitting on the floor while talking with Whitebeard about what was going on around in the world. The both of them were laughing and drinking at how stupid the Marines have been recently.

There was literally no one but Whitebeard, Garp, Luffy and Jones on the Moby Dick for the moment. Thankfully this was a island that was under the protection of Whitebeard so no Marines or other pirates would come and do something troublesome.

Of course the main caretakers had already gotten Luffy's gifts but they were still out in the island along with the rest of the crew. This was a Whitebeard island so they could relax for a bit and enjoy land before having to get back on the ship.

But as the day was ending, Luffy was still with Garp, the crew started boarding slowly. Of course Marco and Thatch were the first ones to get back to the Moby Dick. Mika wasn't too far behind as she came back a few minutes after. The rest also slowly started piling in.

After everyone had come and the day had eventually had ended and dinner was served, Luffy fell asleep in Garp's arms and that was when Marco took the child from Garp and said he was going to sleep as well. The rest of the ship soon followed after Garp was given a room to stay the night in.

The only person that was still out on deck was Jones. Since it was late night, he decided that he would go for a bath. After he was done with his bath, he figured everyone was asleep so he put on sweatpants and his shoes and a towel around his neck but had no shirt on. Going to the galley and into the kitchen, hoping to find leftovers because he got hungry again.

Instead of finding food, he saw the ships head doctor who was surprisingly awake. This wasn't like her because she took advantage of her sleep. She slept as often as she could because there might be a moment where one of her brothers or sisters on the crew would be severely injured and needed her care. She had her hair in a messy bun and was a sports bra and shorts.

He wanted to get out of the galley because ever since he first saw her, he remembered his wife. And as time passed, he realized that she acted like how his wife did. He wanted to get rid of those memories of his past but being so close to a woman who reminded him of her really was not helping.

Turning around quietly and almost making it to the exit he heard "Are you looking for something?"

Jones realized that she didn't know who she was talking to so he tried to change his voice and said "No, I'm alright miss."

Walking away and just as he made it to the door she said "Jones?". He stopped for a moment. She was easily able to recognize his voice but there was something different about hers. Almost like she was relieved to not be alone.

He turned towards her and started walking her way, looking closely at her, he noticed that she was crying but could tell she tried hard hide that from the man. She also had this odd look on her face and he wondered what that was about until he realized that he was shirtless. This was the first time any of the Whitebeard Pirates had seen him without a shirt and he let out a small laugh. All of his scars and tattoos were revealed. However, Mika was looking up and down one certain scar. And he knew exactly the one she was looking at. Hesitantly trying to get the words out of her mouth, she said "You shouldn't be… Alive…" after she said that she looked at the man who was standing in front of her. He let out another small laugh. "Sorry…. I misspoke. I shouldn't have said that." she bowed her head slightly, as if she was asking for forgiveness.

He smiled. He took her hand and ran it through the scar she was looking at. It started from the jugular vein on the right side of his neck, over his adam's apple, towards his left collarbone, down towards his heart where the scar was the deepest. Her kept holding her hand and was taking it down to his bottom ribs where she could still feel the scar and then he continued to guide her hand down to his back and up to the bottom of his spine.

Her eyes were wide open as she was touching that scar. They were wide open for many reasons actually. Besides Pops, Marco and Thatch, no other man on the crew touched her. She was surprised she let Jones take her hand and run it through his ridiculously long scar. Maybe she felt that since they both were one of Luffy's caretakers, she was comfortable around him. Not to say that she wasn't comfortable around the others, but she does know for a fact that besides the people that she was really close with, no one would ever see the doctor like this.

Not only were her eyes widened from the contact, her eyes were wide because she didn't expect for Jones to have such a muscular, built and toned body. It seemed so rough but at the same time she knew it was fragile because of the scars he had. It was a warm body and she didn't know how to feel. She also noticed that this scar looked and felt more recent than his other scars.

He looked in her eyes the whole time he was guiding her hands and he could tell she was surprised with him touching her hand. But he could tell that there was something bothering her. Letting go of her hand, he said "So should I tell you how I got this scar and how I'm still alive or are you going to tell me what's wrong?"

She checked back to reality after he said that. She didn't know how to answer such a simple question. The words were stuck in her so Jones took that as his cue to talk. But before he did, he looked around them and said "Why don't we continue this in your room? I know you just came in here looking for food and then you were heading off to your room. And I'm pretty sure you don't want anyone to know that you were crying." She looked at him and silently agreed.

The two of them were silent until they got to Mika's room. She sat down on her bed and gave Jones the invite to sit on her bed as well but he declined. He sat on the floor, right beside the bed and was leaning on the wall. Mika then laid down, leaning on her left side and was looking at Jones. She had her blanket on top of her and had her left arm on her pillows and her hand supporting her head.

"So… Where we left off…" taking his cue to continue the story "I got this scar 3 years ago… Just after Roger's death. The other ones you saw were much older." Mika was right with her guess that this scar was pretty recent. "But anyways so after Roger told the crew to head their own ways, Rayleigh and myself didn't really want to. We knew Roger was going to turn himself in but he spoke to the both of us privately. And after a long talk, and just as he was about to leave he said "I'm not going to die, partner." and those were his last words to me. After his execution, I decided to go to an island where I fell in love with a woman during my days as a Roger Pirate. And no word of a lie the two of you almost look and sound the exact same. The only difference is was that she had a scar on the right side of her upper lip she got many years ago."

"I had an active bounty" he said and that's where she widened her eyes once more "One day, Marines had shown up to our house and started to burn the place. She was pregnant with our child at the time and as the two of us got out of the house, they shot at us. They killed her. And at that moment I froze. I dropped down to my knees and held her dead body. Crying, I hugged her as tight as I could. I placed a hand on her stomach and saw that her stomach was shot too."

"I was ready to die at that moment. My Captain died not too long ago and my wife and soon to be born child. I had no reason to live in this world anymore. And I was ready to accept my death. Until I was eventually hit by a Marine who was carrying a sword. He cut my neck and cut across down to my heart and dug his sword in. Or so I thought. When he had just barely missed it. With the sword still inside me, I got up and looked at the man dead in his eyes. He then grabbed his sword that was stuck in my body and dragged it down to my ribs and eventually to my back."

"Unconsciously and instinctively, my Devil Fruit powers had activated and I hit the man right in his chest. Killing him. His blood had splattered and a bit of it was right under my nose. I caught a sniff of the dead man's blood and I wanted more. I lost to my anger and rage. The 'curse' that I had awakened after many long years of being tamed. My eyes had been covered in darkness. Killing all the Marines and going on a rampage on the island, I eventually had lost too much blood and passed out."

"I woke up somehow and saw that the wound had closed up. But as I got up I saw what I did. Innocent people dead because of me. My sword was covered in blood, my body and clothes all drenched. The streets had puddles full of blood. I saw heads at random spots and dead bodies at another. There was no one else on this island that was living." he says with full regret in his voice. Pained that he had been the one to do those actions, Mika could tell this man was still feeling guilty and that he hated it. She got out of her bed and sat right beside him. Placing a hand on his arm that was resting on his leg, she could feel him shaking. You couldn't tell just by looking at him but when she placed her hand on him, that was when she noticed that he was truly looking for forgiveness.

"I then left the island and went to a place where there were no humans and had stayed there for 2 years before I met my sister and she told me to come here."

Hearing his story, Mika couldn't help to be scared of the man. But not only was she scared but she could feel his pain. He saw his loved one die in front of him. Their soon to be born child had also died in the womb and he felt like it was his fault. His fault for letting his wife and child die, his fault he lost to his curse and his fault for killing everyone on the island.

She looked at him with careful eyes. She would be lying if she said she wasn't afraid of the man knowing that at any moment if he were to get angry, he could kill an entire island of people. She was afraid and she showed it. But she wasn't afraid to lose her life. She didn't want to see her brothers and sisters die. She had seen a fair share of loss in her life and she wasn't willing to lose people she cared about deeply again.

Noticing her fear, Jones looked at Mika and said "Before you tell me why you were crying, I want you to understand this." he took a deep breath "As much as I love being on this crew, I hate it. I hate it because I'm terrified. If something were to happen to you, Marco, Thatch, Oyaji and especially Luffy. I know I won't be able to control that anger. I will snap if anything were to happen to the five of you." Mika understood where he was coming from. She understands that he cares a lot about this new family he has. This second chance at life.

There was silence for a minute before Mika spoke "Before I was the head doctor for Pops, I was a doctor at a big hospital at the island I was living in, many years ago. I had a sister, who was older than me. She also was a doctor at that same hospital." Jones could hear the hurt in her voice. Instinctively, he placed his arm around her head and she leaned in towards him, continuing her story.

"Until one day, the island was raided by pirates. I can still remember their flag. It was a red flag, with a black skull and two guns making an x behind the skull"

"They overwhelmed the Marines very easily and destroyed most of the island. The area where I was in was a rich area. When the Pirates had come, my sister took us to the river and we were planning an escape. But we were too late."

"Just as we were about to leave, the pirate crew surrounded us." Now she was shaking and had tears coming down on her face. Jones was giving her a one armed hug as best as he could and he could hear her heart pump loud and fast.

"You don't have to continue if you don't want to. Mika do not force yourself."

Ignoring with what he said, she continued "They surrounded us and tied us all up. First the group beat us with whatever weapons they had, punched us and kicked us. Then the Captain decided it would be a good idea to kill us. But before killing us, he realized that we were the only two women alive and were the only two women present." her voice was cracking as she spoke

"They beat my sister and raped her. Tearing off her clothes like animals and jumping on her like she was nothing but a worthless whore. But she kept on struggling until eventually they had enough and shot her, killing her instantly."

"When their attention was towards me, I already was a broken woman. I wasn't able to move at that moment. They dragged me and tore off my clothes. They beat me and raped me. Numerous times. They kept me alive only for that reason. I was entertainment for them. They forced me to do many things."

"They kept me as a prisoner and sex slave. They tortured me. They put a collar bomb in me so I couldn't run away and escape. Daily using and abusing me. And for what seemed like years that's what my life was like. Until the day Pops came. He was walking with Marco and Thatch. I had given up on Pirates. I hated them. I was told to go and entertain the three guests and when I walked up towards them, all three of them looked at me but neither one of the three said anything. Oyaji looked furious, Thatch was lickling his lips and Marco had this dangerous look on his face. At that moment I thought I was going to get used once more. Usually whenever someone looked at me like that, I knew what that meant. I started to take off my clothes but Marco instantly changed his expression on his face, stopped me from taking off my clothes and put a comfortable smile on his face. He held my hands and told me that they aren't here for that."

"I remember Thatch saying a pretty lady shouldn't be hurting and selling herself. She should live the way she wanted to. And without a word they walked forward. I froze at that moment. I didn't know what to do. But then I decided to follow them."

"As I followed, I noticed they were heading towards where the Pirate group was. And I tried to stop them. I knew they were outnumbered a whole lot and were in big trouble. But I was wrong. The three of them brutally killed those pirates and Whitebeard looked at me and said "You may not trust me miss, but do know this. I can give you a second chance at life. A life of meaning and purpose. Become a daughter of mine. I shall protect you at all costs and no one will ever harm you again."

"I passed out and fainted at that moment. I didn't know what to feel. I was overwhelmed with emotions. I was tired, hungry and weak. I was broken. I eventually woke up on the ship they were sailing in and Thatch greeted me with breakfast. Marco treated me with money and clothes each time we went to an island and I would be at Whitebeard's side all the time."

"Why I was crying because I had the nightmare of me going through the incident all over again. But instead of Pops saving me, I see him, Marco and Thatch die. Nightmares don't come to me often but when they do, they feel so real. And it makes me so helpless. I couldn't save both my families." She hugged Jones back. She didn't hold back her sobs and was crying. Jones was comforting her the best he could.

Both were silent for hours. She had placed her head resting on Jones' shoulder. She just wanted to be comforted by someone, and she didn't mind that someone was Jones. He was a caring guy. He was something she didn't know she needed. But she was thankful for having him at that moment. He let her cry, he let her talk, he stayed with her.

Jones looked right into the eyes of Mika "I want you… to make a promise with me…" he says and she looks at him "You get stressed often and you get these nightmares. Promise me that anytime that happens you'll come to me. I'll be there for you at any of those moments."

She looks at him and says "Only if you make a promise and tell me whatever goes on in your head. I want to help you not lose your inner battle." he gave her a very warm and comforting smile. She took that as a yes and then got up from the floor and went back to her bed. Jones got up too and tucked her in and left the room by saying goodnight.

When he walked out of the room, he felt unusually relaxed. Normally he would think of his wife after seeing Mika, but tonight, he saw her. And at her weakest. He closed his eyes and prayed that he would never see her again like this. He climbed up the Crows Nest and looked at the wide sea, thinking of the incidents that had occurred this night.

* * *

 **The morning came and the four caretakers were up already before anyone else. They were getting their preparations ready for Luffy's first birthday party.**

The party was going to be at dinner so everyone had time to wrap up their gifts (if they were going to wrap them) and be ready for the massive amounts of food and drinking that will be happening.

Luffy was in Marco's hand until the first division commander saw Garp walking around the ship and dropped the 1 year old child off to his grandfather.

The four caretakers were in the galley decorating the place. Mika was in an unusual outfit. She was wearing shorts, a t-shirt and sandals. Marco and Thatch hadn't seen that look on her for many years. They also noticed that her pace was faster than normal. Which they found quite odd. But before they were about to ask, Jones said "She's fine.. She just had a nightmare last night."

Marco and Thatch gave each other a look. "Oh now you finally trust him fully huh.." says Thatch smiling "About damn time."

"Shut up Thatch.. Don't pissed her off on Luffy's birthday yoi.. You'll get murdered tomorrow." Marco went back to work decorating but he quietly walked towards Jones and whispered 'Thank you' to the cursed man and the reply Marco got was a small nod.

After a few hours of decorating, it was time for lunch where Jones had picked up Luffy from Garp for a moment and said "Jazz wishes she could be here." and handed him back to Garp.

"Of course she does. It's her son after all. And Dragon is too busy doing whatever the fuck he does."

By the time preparations for the party were all finished, it was dinner time, so that meant that the party was starting shortly. Luffy was being carried by Whitebeard to the galley and once they got there, everyone yelled "HAPPY BIRTHDAY LUFFY!" and the little birthday boy was laughing and gave a shining smile to everyone.

When they got to the division commanders table, there was already a cake out that had Happy Birthday Luffy written in red. The cake was pretty big. Like REALLY big. And on that really big cake there was one lone birthday candle. Luffy had very wide eyes and everyone knew what that meant. It was time to cut the cake before Luffy would 'accidentally' eat the whole cake by himself.

The crew sang Happy Birthday while Luffy was smiling, laughing and clapping. Whitebeard chuckling at his many sons and daughters singing happy birthday. After the song had finished, they made Luffy blow out the candles (with a little help from Whitebeard) and then cut the cake and fed the child a bit of cake. Dinner was then served and the cake was being cut so that everyone could eat.

When the commanders had finished their dinner, cake began to be served to the people in the galley. The table was being cleared so that it could be time to present gifts and for Luffy to open them.

The first person to give him a gift was Marco. Marco was a simple man who wouldn't get anything that Luffy didn't like. And he knew Luffy loved Knights and Dragons and Medieval action figure toys. He once came across a very big set which had a castle, knights, orcs, a Dragon and other things that were in the see through package. When he handed Luffy the gift and the child saw the knight his eyes were wide. He instantly wanted to open it up and play with them. Luffy gave the man a hug and Marco kissed his cheek.

Next up was Mika. Her gift was simple too but Luffy really loved it. It was a simple small basketball, but made with very good material. It was light and small so Luffy could bounce it easily without having to worry that it could hurt him. Mika knew that Luffy loved to bounce a ball and once he would learn how to walk. She might have to teach the young one how to play the game of basketball one day. She thought about it but then realized it would never work out.

Thatch gave Luffy a very dumb gift that Luffy didn't know what is was but everyone else did. Or so they thought. At first, Thatch handed Luffy a permanent marker and said "I'll teach you how to use this properly once you start walking okay." Luffy didn't know what it was but he still gave the man a hug and smiled. But then Thatch actually pulled out his real gift which was colored markers, pencils and crayons, a coloring book and a drawing book. He knew Luffy loved to draw and color like all kids would but he didn't really have anything. Most of the time he was just given some spare torn up paper and a pencil/pen when a division commander wasn't using it.

Finally it was the uncle's turn to give Luffy his gift. He literally did not know what to buy because he knew what the others were going to buy. And he wasn't good at this sort of thing so he asked the one person he knew that would have a gift ready for Luffy. Luffy's mother. But when he asked her, she didn't know what to give him either because she didn't know much about Luffy. Well she did but the stuff she knew about, people had already gotten gifts for him. So she sent a picture. It was more of a drawing/painting but it was very accurate. The artist who did this deserved a lot of credit. It was a memory that Jones had forgotten because it was so long ago.

It was a picture of the wedding between Dragon and Jasmine. You could see Garp in the picture drunk and celebrating. Sengoku was there as well who was looking at Garp and was probably yelling at him for being drunk this early. Jones was present and so was his side of the family. His mother and father were there. His many siblings were there as well. It was a good night. He handed that to Luffy and said "You don't know anyone in this picture except for me and your grandad, but one day I'll tell you this story. I'm sure your mother would love for you to hear her wedding." Luffy looked at the painting that was in a frame. His eyes were scanning through, looking at every little detail. As he was looking intensely at the picture he could recognize Garp and his uncle and pointed at them in the picture and showed the two men. They both laughed and Garp said "That was a fun night."

After the rest of the divisions had given Luffy his presents, it was soon bedtime for everyone. While the drinking party was still going on, Luffy was getting tired. And so was Whitebeard. The caretakers and Pops made their way on deck where no one was there. Except there was a little kitten in the mouth of a relatively small dog. They both looked weak and hungry yet somehow both managed to climbed up on board.

No one would have noticed if it wasn't for Luffy. It was dark outside and everyone wasn't looking at the ground. He was in Whitebeard's arms but as soon as he saw the two, he wanted to be put down. Whitebeard and the others looked at Luffy oddly because this wasn't a normal thing for him to do and as the larger man put the child down. Luffy got up on his two feet and started slowly walking. Marco, Thatch, Jones, Mika and Whitebeard were smiling widely. But they didn't know where he was going or what he was doing until he sat down and carefully petting both puppy and kitten.

Luffy looked at them and then his caretakers and looked at Whitebeard and said "Pa?"

Whitebeard laughed, Mika and the rest of the caretakers were smiling and excited. Luffy walked his first steps and spoke on the same day. They couldn't be any happier. They were wondering what his next words would be already but then again Luffy went "Pa?" but this time he gave Whitebeard the giant puppy eye look and Whitebeard smiled and said "Fine. We keep them." and walked away. It was Luffy's first birthday after all. He couldn't say no to Luffy.

Jones picked up the puppy and kitten. He asked Thatch if there was some small leftovers to feed the two animals for the night before Jones would go out to get proper food for them in the morning. Thatch said there should be so he went to the kitchen to check. He looked at Marco and Mika and said "I'll look after these two. And I'll train them myself."

"Are you sure you can handle it? You don't seem like an animal friendly person." said Mika

"I told you both that I was on an inhabited island for the past few years before coming to this ship right. Well over there, I tamed a lion pride which was known to be the most fearsome pride in the whole island AND I tamed a dinosaur bird. Trust me I'm good with animals."

"Not even surprised." says the both in unison. They picked up Luffy and took him to his crib. After Marco had tucked him in, Thatch came over to Jones with some leftover food and he took the puppy and kitten to the Crows Nest and he stayed there for the night, like he always does. Mika went to her room to get some sleep and Thatch went right back to the galley to party.

* * *

 **Preview/Teaser**

 ***Four years later***

A burnt down flag of the Whitebeard pirates meant one thing. And that one thing was blood spilling everywhere on the ground. Dead bodies were piled, as two men looked at each other across a small field that was covered with dead, headless bodies. One filled with rage and anger. The other with a smirk. The man with rage in his eyes went to attack the man who was smiling but even with his rage, his movements were much faster than before. No normal person would be able to keep up. And as the angry man had brought down his sword for a strike, it was blocked "Hmm you made me unsheathe my sword… Not bad for a demon."

* * *

 **And done.**

I hope you guys enjoyed this chapter. Let me know if you guys found this chapter slightly all over the place. I talked about Jones' past more and we now learned about Mika and her past. Don't worry because there will be a chapter about Thatch and Marco's past too. I wanna get those in here as well. And yes I ship Mika and Jones. That will happen.

Okay so basically, I wanna ask yall two things. Answers could be in review or pm. First, is devil fruit suggestions. I want to hear your opinions on what I should give Luffy for his devil fruit.

Second, would you guys like it if instead of Luffy leaving the crew at 17 to become his own captain, he stays and becomes Whitebeard's division commander. Now if I do that, nothing will be changed in terms of how I have this story all planned out, but instead of possibly making two stories, I change the title and make this one big story. The first part being Luffy's childhood and the second being on how his life is as a division commander. Straw hat crew will be brought here, but in a different way than what you would think.

With that said, thank you for listening, I would like to hear your answers for both questions before I get deeper into this story so let me know your thoughts.


	4. Chapter 4

Thank you **Dar'ska** for the review and suggestion. That df idea sounds interesting. And thank you for reading both my previous story and this version. Appreciate the support.

Of course the hommie **Sudhush** gets the s/o too. Thanks for the df idea and suggestion.

* * *

 **The Storm**

 ***4 Years Later***

It had been five years since Luffy had entered the lives of the Whitebeard Pirates. In the eyes of the caretakers, those five years had gone fast. They remembered Luffy being just a small, fragile, innocent, laughing and always smiling, and surprisingly quiet baby.

Not anymore.

Soon after Luffy had learned to talk in sentences and was able to run, Luffy had changed from a quiet kid to a person that would never stay still or never be quiet for a long period of time. When Luffy would be spending time with Marco while he was doing his paperwork, Luffy couldn't just sit there and do nothing. So either he sat down peacefully and talked to the first division commander. Which mind you, the stuff he talked about wasn't annoying and actually caught Marco off guard. Luffy would ask questions about certain islands and the people Marco had met in these islands and would ask small things about how the ship is and will there be enough supplies for this trip. If he wasn't talking to the man, Luffy would be reading out loud small books or he would be coloring or playing with toys.

Whenever Mika was with Luffy, she would be his teacher. He taught him how to read and is teaching him how to write. She didn't want Luffy to be illiterate so she took it upon herself to teach Luffy these things. She had to force Luffy early on to read and write when all he wanted to do was play but once she picked out small books that Luffy would be interested in reading, that had seemed to work on the child. And ever since then, Luffy enjoyed reading, which was surprising. She and Namur also taught Luffy how to swim. And surprisingly he was quite good at it. For his young age. And for how much they taught him. They both felt proud.

Thatch, well Thatch didn't want Luffy near the kitchen ever since Luffy had completely changed his diet to solid foods. If Luffy was in the kitchen during cooking time, food would get stolen. And eaten. Not just like a small handful or enough for a light snack. Nope. Luffy ate meals. So Thatch had enough of that and spent time with Luffy in a different way. Pranking others. Luffy was small, light and quiet so he could reach places where Thatch couldn't. Together the two of them had pranked most of the crew by now.

When Luffy was in the care of his uncle, Luffy would ask his uncle for stories of his adventures. He did ask the others about their adventures, but as time went on, Luffy realized that the best storytellers were Pops and Jones. Jones was happy to tell Luffy about his adventures. Of course, he wouldn't tell the innocent five year old about the dark stuff that he had done, but he told him about the adventures he had while he was a member of the Roger Pirates. Luffy would always ask about his previous crew and Jones would happily reply.

However, the four of them would be needed for bath day. They made Luffy bathe often because well surprisingly, the Whitebeard pirates were big on cleanliness, which was something odd for pirates. But it kept them away from getting sick and keep the ship not smelling bad. But for Luffy, each caretaker had a job. Thatch was in the water with Luffy, Marco was outside the tub with a towel and Jones was by the door with clothes. Mika was standing outside with a towel in her hands. And by then everyone knew what that meant. When Thatch was done, both Marco and Jones would have to be very fast or else Luffy would just run out the door naked where Mika would be waiting. No one knew why he did that, Luffy just did it. And plus he was only 5 years old and everyone knew he hated staying in one spot for long.

When Luffy spent time with Whitebeard, that was when Luffy would ask Whitebeard about his adventures and his fights he had with other strong pirates. Whenever the crew would walk by Pops, the scene that they would see was precious to them. On one hand they see their Oyaji, in his lap there would be a 5 year old child listening to his father's stories. In the lap of the 5 year old, there would be a black cat with blue eyes sleeping and on the floor there would be a white Labrador that would be at Whitebeard's side all the time. The cat's was eventually named Tiger Lord because he heard the story of how his uncle tamed a really big and dangerous lion. The Labrador was named Stefan through a suggestion from one of the division commanders.

By this time, at the tender age of 5, Whitebeard had suggested that it may be time to start training Luffy how to fight. The caretakers had all agreed but they needed to do it slowly. He was only 5 years old, but he was an odd child. He was surprisingly strong for a 5 year old. And his development was actually going faster than normal. It was probably him having the D. bloodline. And it had something to do with his genetics considering his father and grandfather were Monkey D. Garp and Dragon while his mother and her side of the family were highly skilled assassins.

So Luffy knew how to jump, catch and throw. He already was taught how to swim. So he was pretty fit and had enough physical activity. But training him how to fight is necessary. Especially for a pirate. So what they decided was that Luffy would not use any weapons until he perfected fundamentals and Jones thought it is a good idea to teach him boxing. And they had the wo perfect teachers for him. The first was Diamond Jozu, the third division commander. The second was Kingdew, the 11th division commander.

The two of them thought that training Luffy would be hard and impossible but once they started and gave him the motivation of "You're going to be as strong as Oyaji" Luffy was ready to learn and willing to listen. Of course for the first month or so he wasn't much good but he was learning and slowly progressing. Which was exactly what the two had wanted.

All was going well for the Whitebeard pirates. Things were peaceful yet chaotic on the ship due to Luffy, but everything was alright. Luffy got along well with everyone on the Moby Dick.

However, today was a slightly different day. Thatch had been gone on a island mission with Jones and some of the fourth division and the second division. Marco was really busy with paperwork during the night, he ended up falling asleep. Mika was busy with a few patients, including Whitebeard who got hit with his once a year fever that lasted longer than usual so even he was sleeping.

Luffy being bored, he decided to go to the figurehead and sit there with Tiger Lord and Stefan. The Whale figurehead on the ship was really large so Luffy knew it was safe for him as he had been there many times before, and he did know how to swim so he was fine. And plus he the two pets with him.

* * *

Thatch and Jones were sent on a mission to go check out an island that was supposed to be under attack. When the group had arrived to the island, the were already too late. It appeared that a group of pirates had already gone through and destroyed the town. Houses were burnt and there were dead bodies on the ground. Jones had froze for a moment, remembering the things he had done in his previous life. Quickly shaking his head, he wanted to go find the people who did this.

Teach asked if there was anything important on this island and Thatch replied with "There's an unknown devil fruit here… But no one knows what it is or where it is. I'm assuming these people already took it considering how bad the town is."

"I don't think so." replied the man with an odd smile on his face "If we find it, can we keep it?"

"Sure I guess." Thatch replied. He wanted to turn to Jones but he noticed that Jones wasn't with the group anymore. "Shit… Okay everyone spread out and find Jones. If you find him, you'll find whoever did this. If it's a large number and you see Jones surrounded, make a smoke signal and we shall come towards you. After you make the signal, either help him out or keep the fire going. Depending on the situation." and with that the group had spread out and went their own ways, trying to find their crewmate and whoever did this.

Jones had found the aura of the person. Leaving the group, he had teleported to the area where the aura was coming from and when he got there, he noticed a young man, in his early teens. And with him a small girl, who looked around the same age as the boy. He couldn't really tell. But something was off. The boy sat by the girl who appeared to be sleeping, but the boy had a look of anger in his eyes. There was also sadness. The boy looked angry at the dead bodies that were lying on the ground. And near that area, there was a burnt Whitebeard flag.

Jones decided to confront this young man. And when he got there, the boy held out his sword. Jones raised an eyebrow and wondered where he got such a sword from. That was a rare beauty of a sword and only 12 of those grade quality sword were made. The boy however, was looking at Jones threateningly while Jones had a calm and collected look on his face. He knew what was going to happen next so he decided to wait until the angry kid eventually lashed out an attack.

A burnt down flag of the Whitebeard pirates meant one thing. And that one thing was blood spilling everywhere on the ground. Dead bodies were piled, as two men looked at each other across a small field that was covered with dead, headless bodies. One filled with rage and anger. The other with a smirk. The man with rage in his eyes went to attack the man who was smiling but even with his rage, his movements were much faster than before. No normal person would be able to keep up. And as the angry man had brought down his sword for a strike, it was blocked "Hmm you made me unsheathe my sword… Not bad for a demon."

The young boy who had attacked Jones was shocked. Not a single person had been able to block his attack. Except for the pirates who had rampaged his island just recently. But knowing that he got beaten up badly by those same pirates and nearly killed the sister he was trying to protect, he got even angrier and more careless. However, even though the kid was being careless, he was still a good swordsman. Jones still had a smile on his face because he was happy to see a good young swordsman with a great amount potential if trained. He wasn't trying when he was blocking the attacks but then he started to try just slightly. It would have been disrespectful for him not to try against a decent swordsman who tried to kill him.

Now that Jones was on the offensive, the boy couldn't keep up. Jones was moving too quick with his attacks but the kid was doing good to block and each time he would attack, it was easily parried by Jones. They young boy was being overwhelmed and losing this fight until Jones had eventually gotten the kid to fall and had the tip of his sword at his neck. He looked at the boy and looked at the girl who was sleeping earlier but now had an arrow aimed towards him. Jones had sheathed his sword and smiled again.

"Look here guys, if I was trying to kill the two of you, I would have already done so ages ago… But what happened here?"

The girl replied "What's it to you? How can we trust you?"

"Fair point." and he holds out his hand to help the boy get up "I'm genuinely impressed you were able to make me unsheathe my sword kid. You have good potential."

The boy remained silent. "Anyways, I'm here on behalf of Whitebeard. This was one of our islands and it seemed that someone came through here and messed this whole place over. Do you know who did it?"

"Some weird pirate group. They claimed they were the 'Blackbeard Pirates'. There was this really big and muscular guy. He could destroy buildings with just his punch. There was this weird pale guy with a cane. Another guy who was on a horse and a guy who carried a rifle and had this thing on his eye." said the girl

"I've never heard of them… Anyways, you two are the only ones left alive on this island, and this is no place for the two of you considering the two of you are heavily injured. So you guys are coming with me."

The boy took his sword out once again "Where to?"

"Well to meet Whitebeard of course. He'd love to have the two of you apart of his family. He can give you a home and can offer you and your sister protection. Neither of you will probably ever be harmed again and you can live a free life."

"Free life? Why do all pirates think they can live free lives with no rules?!" said the girl

"There's a difference between pirates and criminals. Regardless of what you are, you still go against the rules of the World Government. But criminals are people who don't give a shit about anyone or anything. They will harm or kill anyone that gets in their way because they call themselves pirates. Good pirates, like Whitebeard and many others, they care for the people. They rarely give a shit about themselves and don't get angry at things that happen to them. But say if someone were to kill or harm on of the crewmates, then that is when they decide to do something. They have morals and act things out through thinking about it, through consultation. Nothing is done by impulse. Well most of the time."

"But anyways… That's not in your interest. Right now, the two of you are badly injured and hurt and you guys look like you haven't eaten in days. I'm still taking you to the ship to recover. After that you can decide on what you want to do."

The brother was still hesitant to agree until the sister had passed out. The second he saw her body slowly start to fall, he ran towards her and caught her. He looked at Jones silently and started walking towards the shore.

As the two were walking in silence, he had eventually managed to make it to the shore. He saw Teach waiting there and he said "Oi Teach, where'd the rest go?"

"They went their own directions once you disappeared. They were all looking for you."

"Oh. Well I suppose we wait now. I'll make a smoke signal.. While I grab some wood, if you have any water, mind giving some to this kid over here and his sister." and just as he said that the boy had passed out too. "Young ones… Always staying unnecessarily strong for no reason."

"At one point we were like that too. Zeehahahha!"

"That we were Marshall. That we were." Jones said as he started a signal.

* * *

A couple of hours later, Luffy saw a ship nearing by and he was about to go get Marco but then his uncle appeared before him. Picking up Luffy, he said "Now why are you here alone?" and before Luffy answered, Stefan barked pretty loudly and Jones was like "Oh nevermind. I won't tell anyone."

"Anyways Luffy I have a job for you. Punch Thatch when he gets on board. Can you do that?" Luffy smiled and nodded. Jones placed the boy down and both went on deck. He found Mika and told her that she had a new patient coming her way. He told her that she was a teen that survived the island but passed out during their whole journey back.

Mika got a hospital bed ready as the ship had neared by. Once everyone got on board, Luffy ran towards Thatch who was holding a devil fruit in his hands and punched him right in the ribs. It wasn't a strong punch, but it was a punch afterall so it did hurt. "JONES YOU FUCKING SHITHEAD I WILL FUCKING KILL YOU!" Mika looked at Thatch and asked him why a punch from a 5 year old boy hurt and Thatch said nothing. She walked right up to Thatch and touched the area where Luffy had punched Thatch.

Her eyes widened and she raised an eyebrow "How?"

"How what?"

"How the fuck did you manage to bruise your ribs?"

"Oh that… I got punched while fighting and then Luffy just hit me."

"He's lying Mika. He saw that devil fruit on a tree and said 'I'm gonna be rich in a week. Fuck you guys.' and climbed the tree and as he got the fruit, he fell." said Jones who had popped up out of nowhere but there was a boy with him who looked to be in his teens.

"Fuck you Jones."

"Only telling the truth bud."

"Well it's only bruised so you'll be fine. Ice it and take painkillers." says Mika

"Well no shit Mika. I was gonna do that regardless."

"And just who are YOU giving attitude to?" Mika had her hand ready to mess up Thatch's hair.

Thatch ran to the infirmary and said "I'll get those painkillers now." She said hello to Luffy, picked him up and placed a kiss on his cheek and then went to the infirmary to check on her new patient.

They young teen was looking at Luffy, surprised to see a young child on board. Deciding to not ask any questions, Jones took the young man to Whitebeard's room where Marco was already there.

The four of them were in the room for about an hour or more and they found out that the boy's name was Sakata. The girl he was with was his sister whose name was Reyna. They were twins fraternal twins which had explained the silver hair on Sakata and the light brown hair on Reyna. Sakata had opened up to Whitebeard about their past since he trusted them. He told the group that he and his sister were abandoned by their parents when they were just six years old and they had been living like that for 12 years until the island got taken by these 'Blackbeard Pirates'.

Whitebeard offered them a home, but Sakata had declined only because he wanted to talk to his sister about it as well. He didn't want to do anything she wouldn't want. Whitebeard respected that and so did the other two that were with him. Once they left Whitebeard's room, Marco saw Thatch scolding Luffy for punching him and Marco walked up to Luffy and said "Good job yoi. Now let's go training with Jozu and Kingdew." and he picked up the five year old and then left.

Sakata saw this and was surprised. This was a fearsome pirate group that was known around the world. Yet here they are. Having a five year old kid on the ship. He wondered if this was someone on this ship was the mother and father. Which made sense. This was a large pirate group so clearly there may have been some relationships.

He didn't think of it too much so he walked around the ship. He had noticed two of the guys that were on the boat with him were talking about something. It probably had something to do with the devil fruit because he saw the man with the pompadour hair tossing the fruit up and down and the other man was oddly looking at the fruit. Not paying attention, he kept walking.

He walked to the training area where he saw a lot of people training. There were many things going on and Sakata fit right in. He always wanted to get stronger to protect his sister and for the time being while she was recovering, this was a good time to get in shape.

However, he was stopped. A man with a very long moustache and twin blades had stopped him. "Excuse me, may I ask where you got such a rare sword?"

Sakata looked at his sword "My piece of shit father gave it to me before he abandoned me and my sister."

"Mind if I see the sword?" he asked. Sakata unsheathed the sword and handed it to the man. The man held the katana with one hand, and with the other he ran his finger through the blade.

"There's only 12 swords made from this quality. It would be an honor to have a duel with you." says the man

"I'm not that good." he said, knowing that he wouldn't be any match to the man standing in front of him.

"He's lying Vista." said Jones who again appeared out of nowhere. "This kid made me unsheathe my sword." Vista raised an eyebrow and looked at both Jones and Sakata.

"I mean no disrespect here, but if you can keep up with Davy over there, I'm pretty sure you can keep up with me as well. So why not have a short duel."

Sakata looked at the man and then turned to Jones. He rubbed his hands together and cracked his neck. He took the sword from Vista and agreed to this duel.

He didn't expect everyone to stop training when he agreed. The people made a circle and cleared out anything that was going to be in the area they were fighting in. All the division commanders were there, Whitebeard was there. Luffy was there with Tiger Lord and Stefan.

Vista took out his two swords and said "As the 5th division commander of the Whitebeard pirates, I, Flower-Blade Vista, would like to have a duel. Do you accept this challenge?"

Sakata closed his eyes and took a deep breath. He kept them close for a few seconds and opened his eyes when he had exhaled. "And I, Sakata, accept this challenge." unsheathing his sword.

Whitebeard yelled out begin and the duel started. Sakata charged at Vista and the other man blocked the attack with relative ease. He attacked a few more times but each attack was stronger than the last, so Vista had to actually start trying. He quickly understood that Sakata was trying to measure him out. So when Sakata went for another attack, this time, Vista had parried the sword and went on the offensive. Sakata was blocking his attacks pretty well and also exchanged blows by parrying and attacking. But right now his main focus was defending. Vista was a lot quicker than he was so it was hard to fully keep up but he could tell that the older man was still holding back. Just like Jones had early on, until he actually decided to try at one point.

This fight was going on for about 10 minutes of pure swordsmanship. The match wasn't exactly even because it looked like the winner was going to be Vista, but this kid wasn't too bad. He was trying to keep up with the older and much more experienced swordsman. At one point however, Sakata did notice a very small thing in Vista's stance though. Every time Vista would attack Sakata's leg with his left hand, his next attack would be an overhead attack with his right hand. But he saw a small opening in that time. He kept waiting until Vista had aimed for the leg again, but this time he let himself get hit but he was able to bring his bring his sword right near Vista's neck but that was quickly blocked by the sword in his left hand and with his right, Vista brought his sword right up to Sakata's heart.

The boy looked at the sword and looked at Vista and took a step back. He sheathed his sword and bowed to the man, who bowed back and started congratulating the boy. Everyone knew Vista was going to win but there was not a single cheer for the 5th division commander. Everyone was clapping and cheering for Sakata who was able to stand up to Vista for that long. Not many people have been able to do that. Sakata felt proud of himself.

The circle slowly started to clear out and everyone was doing their own things again until the only two people standing in front of Sakata was Jones and Luffy. Luffy was impressed at his skills and said "You're awesome! I want to be as strong as you one day." and Sakata smiled at the young child. The child's eyes were large in awe and his smile was as bright as the sun.

"You did good kid." said Jones

"Thanks."

"If i were to tell you I can help you become the next World's Greatest Swordsman, you'd tell me to go fuck off because that's not what your aimed towards. But if I tell you I can help you to get stronger to protect your sister, would you consider it?"

"Well you are right about one thing. I don't care for this Greatest Swordsman title. I just did what I had to do to protect her."

"So why don't I train you. I can help you become a better swordsman and make you much stronger than you really are. You have potential kid. Now I'm not gonna say you are going to change the world with your strength because again you don't care for it. But for the safety of your sister and to keep you alive to be able to continue protecting your sister, I can help you achieve that much."

This was not a hard choice for the 18 year old. Sakata looked at Jones. "So when do we start?"

* * *

Night time was odd. Dinner went well but then it started to rain pretty badly during the night. Luffy was already in his room with Stefan and Tiger Lord. He had went to bed early because he spent an extra two hours training with Kingdew so all he wanted to do was eat and go sleep. But as the storm was going on, he woke up and so did the two pets. Luffy woke up yelling Thatch with a cold sweat and tears in his eyes. He ran out of his room and the two animals followed.

The roaring thunder was loud. So loud that it made Sakata wake up. He wasn't used to storms in the island he and his sister were in. For some reason, he wanted to go see the rain and this storm. He always heard stories that lightning was a beautiful thing to look at if you are quick enough to see the large bolts light up the sky, so he decided to go out. Even though he knew he would be safe, for some reason, he took his sword with him. As he was walking, he had noticed the small kid, Luffy, running out in the heavy rain with just a t-shirt and a pair of shorts on. He knew the kid would get sick so he ran after him.

Jones was on watch and walking around freely on deck. He loved the rain. Spending two years on an island where it rained quite a lot for a whole season, he found that rain was comforting to him. The sparks of lightning and the sounds of thunder had always seemed to calm him down. The cold wet feeling of the rain on his skin made him relax. However tonight, he wasn't at peace. He was uneasy. He didn't know why. He made his way to the training area and that was when he widened his eyes and ran towards a certain area.

Thatch was finally in bed. He just came back from a mission, just happened to hurt his rib which wasn't as painful because his tolerance was high but it did bother him and he was tired and sore. He had a devil fruit in front of him and said "You are going to make me a rich man… I just hope you aren't some dangerous thing."

Just as he closed the light to his room, he heard a very loud knock. He wondered who it would have been at this time and he hoped it wasn't anything serious so he quickly opened the door and saw Teach with a murderous smile on his face. Thatch was about to say something but then Teach had punched his rib area but it was more than a punch. He also got stabbed by something.

"Sorry commander… But that devil fruit is mine." as he raised a knife to kill his crewmate.

* * *

Luffy made it all the way to Thatch's room only to find the fourth division commander covered in blood. He stood still and didn't know what to do. He couldn't move, he couldn't open his mouth. However, he did hear the newcomer on the ship take out his sword and attack Teach as he came out of the room with a devil fruit in his hand and a 3 clawed weapon that was tied to his wrist. In the other hand was a knife that was covered in Thatch's blood.

Sakata was just about to land an attack until Teach dropped the devil fruit, made a fist and punched Sakata, but since that hand had those three blades standing out, they went right into the teens chest and he instantly fell. Picking up the devil fruit, he looked at Luffy with a murderous smile and said "If you scream, I'll kill you to."

Luffy looked at the man that was standing in front of him. He looked like he was about to scream but he didn't. His voice wasn't working. He was just frozen. "And you're not going to tell anyone either…" and he brought the knife up to Luffy to threaten the five year old child. But then he felt a body lounge towards him.

Jones had tackled Teach down. Dropping the devil fruit in his hand. However, the knife he had, he threw at Luffy. The boy couldn't move because he was still in shock and there was now a knife right underneath his eye.

Jones had completely lost it. He was going to kill Teach whether he liked it or not. That man was dying tonight. However, he didn't want his nephew to look at the brutal execution that was about to take place. Jones looked at Luffy and said "LUFFY GO WAKE UP MARCO! NOW!" and that's when Luffy shook himself out of his frozen state and ran to Marco.

As the young child was running he yelled out "MARCO" as loud as he could and then it happened. A very strong wave of Conquerors Haki had been unleashed by the boy.

Jones was completely fine, but he saw Teach who was on his knee due to that. _Good. The more pain, the better_ thought the sadistic man as he was looking at his next victim.

Catching his breath and standing up tall Teach said "Would you want to kill me? Or do you want to save your friends?"

Jones stopped. Everything in his body made him want to kill Teach but then he knew that he had a chance to save Thatch and Sakata. Punching a hole in Thatch's door he said "Fuck you Teach. Just know I'll be the one to kill you." and he turned around to help his nakama.

* * *

Marco was in bed sleeping peacefully until he felt the wave of Haki in his sleep. He quickly woke up to hear his door being knocked and Marco got out of bed and opened the door. He saw Luffy standing out with a dagger right under his eye and the boy looked very pale and was struggling to keep consciousness. He wondered just what the hell had happened before Luffy had passed out.

Marco thought of nothing except of getting Luffy to the infirmary. As he was making his way, he say Jones running towards the infirmary but he was holding Thatch in one arm and Sakata in the other. He really wanted to know what the hell had happened.

"MIKAAAAAAAAA!" yelled out Jones as the Whitebeard pirates, including Pops himself, were all awake and out on deck trying to see what the commotion was about until they saw 3 bodies. Two in the arms of Jones and one in the arms of Marco.

The door to the infirmary had just opened by the time Marco had arrived with Luffy and when Jones arrived with Thatch and Sakata. The two of them placed the three down carefully in the beds that were prepared as quick as they could. Mika had her eyes widened at the fact that two people that she cared for were now currently fighting to live. She blinked and shook her head and became all professional. She kicked out the two men that carried the near dead bodies and closed the door.

Jones closed his eyes as the rain had stopped. Instinctively, his Zoan devil fruit powers activated and he yelled out "FUUUUUUUUCCCCCCCKKKKKKKKKKKK!" at the top of his lungs. Everyone could hear the anger in his voice. Hell, he could barely contain his bloodlust. He had a hand at the hilt of his sword and unsheathed it. He was going to kill tonight. This was the final limit to his control. Someone was going to die by the end of this.

* * *

 **And that's all for today folks. I hope you guys enjoyed.**

 **Alright so Luffy will not be staying on the ship. He shall leave to become his own Captain at the end of this story.**

 **Okay so here's my take on Blackbeard. He was in touch with a few friends (the people we saw on the Jaya arc on One Piece) and told them to find the dark-dark fruit. They found it and destroyed the island then they left. He was always the bad guy.**


	5. Chapter 5

New chapter so all already know the hommie **Sudhush** gonna get the s/o like always. Thanks for the reviews!

Thanks for all of your support guys. Leave some more reviews down below and still hit me up with devil fruit suggestions either by review or PM.

* * *

 **After Night Comes Morning**

When the man known as Davy Jones screamed at the top of his lungs, everyone on the ship could hear the anger from his voice. No one dared to stand by him. They all knew he was out for blood this night and they did value their lives. No one moved a muscle for minutes while Jones was spewing out his anger.

The rain had stopped and Marco knew exactly what he had to do. He ran towards Whitebeard and looked at the Old Man without saying a word. Yet the Captain knew exactly what his first mate was going to say and he just nodded. No one knew how to control Jones' anger except four people and those four were Whitebeard, Marco, Thatch and Mika.

His arms had transformed into fiery light blue wings as he flew towards the angered demon. Once he was standing in front of him, Marco looked at the eyes of the man and they were filled with anger, hatred and a hunger for blood. Any other person would have been completely terrified and frozen just by looking at him but Marco had his usual expressionless face filled with no emotion himself.

He looked at the man and said "Jones yoi, if you want to kill anyone, kill me." Marco was challenging the man to come after him. Fully transforming into the Phoenix that he was known for, he had flew off towards a certain direction.

Jones had his sword in his hand and started running towards Marco. The ship was relatively large and Marco did have the advantage of flying while Jones had to run so Marco was beating him in this "race" which lasted for a couple of minutes.

In his anger, Jones had all of his attention towards Marco. He cared about nobody in his way. His vision was dark but only following a bright blue light which was going to be his target to kill. What he didn't notice was that Whitebeard was waiting from him with his bisento.

Once Marco and Jones were in Whitebeard's vision, took his weapon and clad the blade with armament Haki and also had his devil fruit activated on the blade as well. When Jones came right within arms reach of the older pirate, Whitebeard had stabbed Jones with the weapon right in his chest. The blade was clad in Haki so it went through to the body of Jones and the earthquake ability of Whitebeard was working and damaging the man as he could hear Jones scream in pain until eventually he fell down and he changed back into his human form.

People thought that Whitebeard had killed Jones because they saw blood coming out from the still body that was on the ground but that was soon proven wrong because Jones had slowly gotten up with the help from Whitebeard and Marco. His eyes were back to normal and his zoan fruit wasn't active so it was safe to assume that he was back to normal. Jones looked at the two of them and then looked at the terrified and confused faces of the crew and apologized sincerely.

Whitebeard had laughed at the apology because it was unnecessary but then he did get serious and asked what happened. Jones took a deep breath and told them everything. He said Teach had come after the devil fruit that Thatch had, he stabbed him and was about to leave but Luffy and the newcomer Sakata had seen this occur so Sakata tried stopping him but Teach had overwhelmed him. And then he told him how he arrived too late and as he tackled the man, he had thrown his dagger and it hit Luffy right underneath the eye and that he let Teach go to get some help for both the two heavily injured men.

The entire crew was in a chaos. Everyone was mad that one of their own had betrayed him. Whitebead himself gotten so angry that he said "If I ever see Teach. I'll kill him myself for harming our own." but he did also tell everyone that Teach should be left alone. It is too risky to send someone after Teach knowing that he is much stronger than what he appears to be. Everyone was fine with that except Jones. He felt responsible for this. He was too late and three people got injured because if it. One being his nephew, the other being one of his closest friends and the other being a soon to be student of his. He was beyond angry at himself. But he tried to remain calm. He knew he was bleeding badly so he looked at Whitebeard and Marco once more and said "Thank you." and left.

* * *

Mika's mind was racing. She felt very uneasy. All she wanted to do was crawl up in a corner and cry. Normally, she wasn't like this. She was a hard boiled and strong woman. But today, not being able to help three of the people she cared about, she definitely wanted to escape from reality.

In front of her was a pale barely breathing Luffy with a knife beneath his left eye. She and another nurse carefully removed the dagger and tried to stop the bleeding as best as they could and once the bleeding had gone under control, the nurse started to stitch up the injury.

Dealing with Thatch was pretty difficult because not only did she have to keep an eye out on Thatch, she also needed to keep an eye on Sakata as well. Surgeries were required for both of the men as Thatch had broken ribs and Sakata had a punctured lung. Those took up a lot of supplies and time and they were running short.

However, while Sakata was being worked on, even though he was on anesthesia, he had woken up with bloodshot eyes. He took a look at Mika who stood in front of him quickly and he said "Take care... of.. Rey..Na" and then he closed his eyes and drew his last breath. There was no heartbeat and no pulse. Mika was furious that someone had died on her watch because it rarely had happened but there was nothing more she could do.

But once the surgeries were over, the doctors and nurses had noticed something. Luffy was becoming a lot worse than he was before. Then they took a look at Thatch and noticed that it was the same for him as well. They took a look at their blood samples as fast as they could and noticed that they were poisoned. They did not have the right equipment to treat poison. And this poison was working fast. They needed to get the two of them to a hospital.

Mika had ran out of the infirmary and looked seriously worried. Everyone's attention turned towards the head doctor. "Oyaji we need to get to a hospital and fast. The weapons that made those injuries were poisoned and it is doing a lot more damage than we can fix." She then said "Sakata died from his injuries. His last words were to take care of his sister."

Whitebeard and Jones had raised their eyebrows. But the two just nodded. Everyone was concerned but quickly started working quickly around the ship. Jones and Marco looked at each other. Even in tough situation, both men knew that her voice was confident. Not today. Then she had walked towards the three men standing in front of her and she said "They are dying." with tears flowing down from her eyes. Whitebeard looked at his 'oldest' daughter and hugged her. He tried to comfort her as best as he could. Then she looked at Marco and Jones and said "Sorry." The two men looked at her and smiled. "Luffy's tough, he won't die that easily yoi. After all you did raise him to become a strong and brave child.."

Jones also said "Thatch may be a little shit sometimes, but you and I both know he can take a lot of damage. He'll be fine too." And the two men hugged Mika. She still had tears flowing down her face and the two men tried to comfort her as best as they could.

She took a deep breath and composed herself to get back into the infirmary. Just as she was about to leave, one of the pirates in the first division had came to Whitebeard and said that they will arrive at an island by dawn.

* * *

The crew worked double time for an attempt to get the ship to reach its destination faster and somehow it worked. The current was on their side and so was a wind that had picked up during the few hours they had.

Just as they had arrived, Mika took out the two hospital beds and the people that were in them looked much worse than before. Both were on the verge of dying. Mika, Jones and Marco went to town with the hospital beds are they were carefully rushing. As soon as they got to the hospital they called out for some doctors to help. They explained the situation to them and the doctors moved as fast as they could. And even though Mika was a doctor, she was not allowed in the room while they were working on the two patients.

Mika did not argue as both Jones and Marco had held her back and told her to trust these doctors. Hours were spent as the three of them were awake. Both comforting Mika as best as they could. Sometime during the seemingly long night, Mika had fallen asleep. Marco had also slept once he noticed that Mika fell asleep and Jones was the only one awake. He hoped the three of them would survive this but deep down he feared losing Luffy and Thatch. They meant a lot to him while he was on this ship and he didn't know how to act if one of them did die. Especially Luffy. He could not lose his nephew. So he waited.

* * *

The two of them were woken up shortly after by Jones. And standing in front of them was the doctor. Mika, Jones and Marco stood up, waiting to hear what the doctor was about to say.

"I have some good news and bad news…" said the old doctor who looked very tired himself

"How's the child?" asked Mika

"We got the poison out of the child fully, however he is still in recovery. Currently he's sleeping and should wake up within the day or so." Hearing that made the three relived. Luffy was going to be fine.

"The man with the stylish hair however, is a different situation. Because of the broken ribs and the poison doing more damage to him, he right now is in a coma. We don't know how long it'll take for him to wake up but he will eventually wake up soon. Could be in a few days or on a month. That all depends on him." The three looked worried now but the doctor continued "We did get the poison out of him and he is on medication right now. For the time being all he needs to do is recover."

The three of them were hit hard with the news that they heard. Thatch was going to be in a coma. Thankfully Luffy is going to recover quickly but they also wanted Thatch to recover just as fast. All three of them were worried for their friend. As the hours had passed, Whitebeard and the rest of the division commanders had arrived. They told them the news and everyone was worried about Thatch, but they all knew he was a tough one and since they were told that he was going to survive this, they all had their hopes up that he would wake up soon.

* * *

It only took Luffy a full day of rest to finally wake up. The waiting room was empty except for Marco, Jones and Mika who had been staying for the time while everyone else had left. The three rushed in to see Luffy once they were allowed and once they saw Luffy staring right at Thatch, they surrounded him. Once he saw Mika, he got up while on his bed and jumped on Mika and hugged her. He started to cry loudly and that made Mika cry. "I'm sorry." was what the five year old child had said and hugged Mika tighter. The two men were standing and doing their best to comfort both. Jones said "Don't be sorry Luffy. You saved him… If you got killed, Thatch would have died and we'd be without the two of you. But you were a strong boy and ran. You saved yourself and you saved Thatch."

"That's all the matters yoi. The two of you are alive." still the two were crying. Jones and Marco just rubbed their backs and were there for comfort. But Marco and Jones both looked at each other. Neither of them wanted to see Luffy and Mika cry. The next time someone did, they would have to pay with their blood.

* * *

Luffy stayed in the hospital for another day until he was allowed to leave. Mika said that she would take him for a walk on this island. Marco and Jones wanted to come with her but the two of them stopped themselves. Mika was more parent like to Luffy unlike how the rest were like older brothers to him. They knew she wanted to spend time with him alone. So they let her. One they saw Luffy smiling again, there really wasn't much of a choice.

The two had walked into town and Mika had more than enough money to get whatever Luffy had wanted. Their first trips were to some toy stores and Luffy had picked out whatever he liked. The next thing he wanted to get was some new books to read so the two went into a bookstore and Luffy found some books that looked interesting enough for him and Mika paid for the two. Next Luffy wanted to get flowers but he didn't tell Mika why he wanted flowers but she did buy the flowers anyways. Her initial thought was that the flowers were going to be for Thatch.

The last thing they did was go towards a restaurant to eat. The two had been walking around the town for hours it ended being night time. They walked around for quite a while and they were both getting hungry. Once they got to the restaurant, she noticed the atmosphere was pretty bad. Her instincts told her that the people in this place were bad news. She just hoped nothing would happen to Luffy. Not after everything he saw and had just gone through.

When they had entered, some of the men had started whistling and catcalling, trying to get her attention. Just by the way they were acting, she already knew these people were bandits and thugs. But she was in her motherly protective mode and cared for no one except Luffy. After they had ordered their food and waited a short while before it arrived, Luffy was stuffing his face with the steak that Miak had ordered for him and she was really enjoying this fried rice dish.

Once they finished and paid for the food, they left the restaurant without trouble. However, when they left, the group of bandits and thugs had followed her. And they outnumbered her and Luffy by a lot. She was a Whitebeard Pirate but she was very tired over these past few days after getting little sleep. She was tired and wanted to get Luffy to safety. But that was going to wait.

Mika and Luffy were walking a pretty fast pace and walking in the town was pretty helpful but once the bandits had eventually caught up to the two of them, they were surrounded and ended up in an empty, dark alley filled with bandits.

"You're a stubborn one." says one of them, who seemed to be the leader.

Mika remained silent and held on to Luffy's hand tightly. Luffy just looked at her and knew that something was wrong. So of course little Luffy started becoming protective. "Don't come near my mother you bastards." Mika looked at Luffy. In another situation, she would have smiled at the fact that Luffy called Mika 'Mother' but this was a slightly more serious situation.

"That's one pretty mother." says the man looking at Luffy and stepping forward. Mika winced. Her old memories were coming back to her. And without noticing, some of the men that were behind her had come forward and separated Luffy from Mika. Luffy started screaming and kicking and was struggling until a gun was pointed towards the head of the five year old. Mika looked at Luffy and saw him getting angry. Very angry. Almost like his eyes were becoming black.

 _Black eyes…._ She now looked more worried than ever. She remembered what Jones had described her when he told her about his bloodlusting curse and how his eyes go all black. They were doing the exact same thing for Luffy as well. "Luffy, look at me." she said and instantly the child looked at Mika, his eyes were having a conflict within itself and she thought Luffy was having an inner conflict of remaining calm and going crazy. "It'll be alright okay… I'll be fine." she said and then the leader of the bandits slapped her across the face and ripped off her clothes, exposing her bare and naked body.

"Fine? You won't be fine. And I'll make your worthless son watch you get raped and if either of you try to struggle, I'll shoot the two of you. But I'll kill the kid first."

* * *

While Luffy was seeing this happen in front of him, he felt something nagging him on the inside. He didn't like that feeling but at the same time he wanted to figure out what this intense feeling was. Shutting his eyes as hard as he could, he could hear Mika call his name and to look at her. Which he was easily able to do so. But he could see her pain. He didn't like it. He just saw Thatch nearly die. He couldn't just stand there and do nothing. At least back then, his uncle was there and told Luffy to run but he wasn't here. No one was. He had to do something.

His own thoughts were terrifying him. There was a voice in his head screaming out "Kill" and another voice saying "Save her". The innocent five year old child was having this weird conflict within himself that he did not fully understand yet. All that was going on in this five year old child's head was kill. He was scared. He knew he should not be having these thoughts yet it was. The more the voices in his head kept telling him to kill, the more scared and angry he got.

"Stop it" he said in a low voice as he shut his eyes once more. Not having enough strength to see the lifeless eyes of his mother. He said stop once again in the same tone but then he started hearing the bandits punch and kick her. He opened his eyes and saw blood from the mouth of Mika and this time, in a louder voice and at the top of his lungs, Luffy yelled out "DON'T HURT MY MOTHER!" releasing a wave of conquerors Haki, but it wasn't as strong as it was on the ship. The only person who wasn't unconscious was the leader of the bandits. He looked at the knocked out bodies of his allies and got off of Mika.

Pointing his gun towards Luffy, he could tell that the boy lost his mind. Luffy stood there as the man had his gun pointed towards him and looked right into his eyes. Making two fists, he moved as quick as he could and first punched the knee of the man. The punch was abnormally strong enough to break the leg bones of the man as the crack and pops could be heard loud and clear.

The man screamed out in pain as he fell on his knees and he was just slightly taller than Luffy, but the child still took advantage. He punched the ribs of the man with his right hand and the neck with his left hand and you could again hear the bones break. The bandit had broke his ribs and started coughing up blood because of the punch to the throat and the ribs. Next, Luffy looked right into the man's eyes as he went to punch the face. But before that, Mika could swear she saw Luffy's fist turn black and just as the punch landed. The impact was so strong that the bandits head twisted so much that it snapped and he instantly died.

Mika was terrified seeing this. She didn't know how to stop Luffy. She didn't know if she could stop him. Just as she thought there was no one else, she saw a large figure coming towards her and Luffy and she didn't know what to do. She was hurting in many places and was almost violated by many bandits. She didn't have the strength to get up but what happened next was something she did not expect.

The man was wearing a large coat and he took that off and dropped it towards Mika. Then the man went to Luffy and picked up the angry child and said "As I thought… you were born with it… It'll be alright Luffy. She's fine thanks to you. You can calm down now." and he hugged the child.

Mika didn't know how to react but the first thing she did was put on the coat that easily covered her body. Seeing how she was able to get up, the man led the way out of the alley, with Luffy still in his arms and that was when she saw the face of the man.

"Vice Admiral Garp?..."

"Hush now Luffy you don't need to cry." the old man said to his grandson as he gave him to Mika. He latched on to Mika very tightly and cried. She comforted him as any mother would do but she herself wasn't in the best of shapes.

She followed Garp unknowingly until she realized that she was going back to the port where the ship was anchored. Once she had entered, she saw Whitebeard, Marco and Jones who got up to greet her. And they look furious once they saw Luffy who still had tears rolling down his face.

"What happened my daughter?" asks Whitebeard

She looked at him and told him everything. From when they entered the restaurant until they reached all the way here. She told them how Luffy used Conquerors Haki and how he brutally killed the leader of the bandits. Marco gave Jones a look but Jones said nothing. Garp was talking to Whitebeard while Marco, Jones and Mika were together. Both men comforting Luffy and Mika once more.

* * *

After dinner, Whitebeard had called for the three caretakers and Luffy. Once they went to him, they saw Garp standing by. Whitebeard looked at Luffy and said "My son would you like to spend time with your grandfather for a few months?"

The five year old boy wanted to stay for Thatch and was about to say no but Mika said "Luffy, Thatch will be fine alright. I think it's a good idea for you to go." He looked at Mika hesitantly "It'll only be a few months and plus you need this more than anyone."

Luffy didn't want to say yes but he did. He listened to whatever Mika had told him because to him, that was his mother. He knew she wasn't his real mom but she acted like a mother.

Please take care of him Garp." says Mika and the older man laughed

"Said it like a true mother… Don't worry, that brat won't leave my sight." as he left the room to prepare for his journey.

Everyone hugged Luffy and told him that it would be alright. They all knew he didn't want to leave but for now they wanted him to get away from misery. He practically saw one of his older brothers die and saw his 'mother' get assaulted, causing him to have these weird scary voices in his head which made him kill a person.

It was going to be a long journey so Garp did bring his Navy ship as it too was anchored by the Moby Dick. He had his trusted men on board and they knew to not say a word about Garp. Their sense of justice was much more different than the Marines had now days. The plan was to leave now so they could get some rest while on their journey and because Garp really wanted Luffy out of there.

So once the tearful goodbyes were done, Garp and Luffy had sailed off. The Moby Dick was going to be very quiet for the first time in a very long time. The little ball of sunshine known as Monkey D. Luffy was leaving and Thatch was still recovering but in a coma. They all just hoped that this would end quickly.

* * *

As Luffy waved his goodbyes, Garp had ruffled Luffy's hair and said "Listen Luffy, we are going to start real training tomorrow. I don't know what those damn pirates have been teaching but but from tomorrow until we get to East Blue, you will be training like a man. Once we get to Foosha, you'll be training like a real man."

"Foosha?" asked the child with a confused look on his face

"Ah, that's my home. You'll like it. Oh and you're going to meet Makino, Dadan and Ace so be on your best behaviour okay." as the man walked away for a moment to talk to one of his men

Luffy looked at the night sky that was lit up by many stars. As he saw the Moby Dick getting further away, he had another tear fall but then he went to walk around the ship because this was unfamiliar territory for him.

* * *

Days turned into weeks as Luffy had constantly kept training with Garp and the Marines. Unlike training with Kingdew and Jozu, he was actually able to fight with these people. His caretakers were always overprotective of Luffy so he wasn't allowed to fight yet, but training with Garp and the Marines, it was a learning experience. He was able to try out all the things he was taught and was kind of a good fighter but still lacked the strength and actual muscle to do a lot more damage.

Garp was impressed at Luffy. In just three short weeks of this journey back to East Blue from the New World, he had seen a great deal of improvement. He saw a fire in Luffy's eyes and he understood what that meant. He wanted to get stronger. He wanted to be able to protect his family. After everything he saw before he left, Garp knew that fire was not going to be extinguished until he became as strong as Whitebeard. It reminded him of his younger days when he was just an ordinary cabin boy of the Marines.

Luffy's fighting style started out as boxing but as he and the Marines kept on pushing Luffy, the young five year old was able to modify his fighting style. It was still boxing but it didn't look like it. His footwork had improved by a lot during those weeks and how he fought people was different. Garp noticed that Luffy was a blessed child. Not only did he carry the D initial but having the blood and genes of himself, Dragon, Jasmine and her assassin family, fighting was in Luffy's blood. Which made sense because for a normal five year old, they shouldn't be that good at fighting but here was Luffy. Exceeding expectations like always.

Another key improvement that Garp was proud of was Luffy's haki. For a five year old child, Luffy's observation haki was getting better and his armament haki was still a work in progress. As Luffy would get older, that would change. Garp didn't even touch his conquerors haki. That was something he couldn't necessarily teach to a five year old.

* * *

On the fourth week, they were nearing an island. Luffy went up to Garp and said "Jii-chan is that your home?"

"No, we have to stop there for a few hours. We kind of ran out of meat and donuts." he said laughing

"We ran out of meat?" Luffy looked worried, they couldn't run out of meat. Luffy would die without his meat. He started panicking and was running around in a circle screaming "WE'RE OUT OF MEAT?!"

Garp started to laugh and then realize that they were out of both meat and donuts. His eyes widened and he started screaming "YOU BASTARDS WHY'D YOU WAIT SO LATE TO TELL ME WE WERE OUT OF DONUTS?!" and all the Marines could do was facepalm while Grandfather and Grandson were acting like children.

When they had anchored the ship, Garp took Luffy out for a walk where there was a building seemingly in the middle of a forest area and Garp told Luffy to wait here for a few minutes as he entered this place. Luffy was alone and bored and that meant he would wander around until he heard his grandfather call out his name. But knowing his grandfather in those short four weeks, that would probably take half of the day and since it an hour or so before sunset, Luffy knew he was going to be here for a while.

Luffy was alone and walked around the area until he heard a noise. It sounded like heavy breathing and struggling so Luffy of course went towards the voice. As he got closer to what was making that heavy breathing sounds, he noticed a small, tanned, green haired boy practicing with three kendo sticks. One in his left hand and one in his right as well as one in his mouth. Luffy found that odd but after seeing the boy train with the practice dummy that was placed, he was quite good for a kid.

After the green haired boy was done with his training, Luffy said "Why do you use three swords?" and that startled the green haired boy. He didn't expect anyone to be watching him because it was after hours for the dojo which meant that all the students went home. And the boy didn't know who he was so he was defensive and had his kendo swords pointed towards Luffy.

"Who are you?" asks the boy

"I'm Luffy. Monkey D. Luffy. What's your name?"

"My name's Zoro. Why are you here?"

"I dunno.. Jii-Chan told me to wait for him while he went into some building to talk to a friend. So I walked around and I found you."

The boy looked confused "Why aren't you scared? I'm clearly stronger and older than you and I have three swords. You should be scared."

"Nah, I'm a pirate." he smiled widely. The green haired boy looked at Luffy with a raised eyebrow. There was no way a kid his age could be a pirate. But there was something odd about Luffy. He wasn't like a normal kid. Well the kids Zoro was accustomed to were all weak and scared of him. He was now the best fighter in the dojo that even beat adults, but Luffy wasn't afraid of him.

"Oh yeah, what crew do you belong to?"

"I'm a Whitebeard Pirate." he says but this time he said it with a proud look on his face. And for some reason he believed Luffy. Those eyes looked like he couldn't tell a lie and that proud face of his, it made it all more believable.

The green haired child obviously knew who Whitebeard was and laughed "There's no way a kid like you would be a Whitebeard Pirate."

"I'm one of his sons." says Luffy

"Pssshh yeah right. And I'm the World's Greatest Swordsman."

"Woah really? You're stronger than Vista? Awesome!" Luffy was gullible enough to believe Zoro.

"How about this…" Zoro suggested "Let's have a fight. Because there's no way a wimp like you can ever become a Whitebeard Pirate."

Luffy agreed, he liked to train and this would be the first real test for him. He'd normally fight adults like the Marines and Garp and the punching bag and the occasional spar with Jozo and Kingdew. This was his first time he was in a fight with someone around his age. A real test for him to see how strong he really was.

The match started when the Zoro came charging quickly towards Luffy with the three kendo sticks. Luffy dodged them and for now was just defending himself and blocking. Making sure he didn't get hit from the swords.

Zoro was impressed that Luffy was able to see through the moves and dodge them. In the short time that Luffy had trained with Garp and the Marines, Luffy became a quicker fighter and also stronger. His footwork had gotten better but the way he attacked was a combination of recklessness and strategic style of fighting. He would throw out punches and kicks which were being blocked by Zoro but some hits did land. Luffy was a persistent fighter that wanted to get in as many hits as he could and take the least amount of damage possible.

Zoro for his age was a tough one to. He was very durable and took in all the hits that Luffy threw at him and he was slightly faster than Luffy on the offensive so most of this match consisted of Zoro being in the driver's seat. But as time went on, Zoro was starting to feel all the blows that Luffy had hit him with and he was starting to feel tired. Looking at Luffy, he noticed the same thing but Luffy had more determination in his eyes to finish the fight and once the little Whitebeard Pirate noticed that Zoro was getting tired, he tried to finish the fight by throwing all that he had left in the last few attacks.

A perfectly timed kick to the legs of Zoro caught him off guard, making the green haired boy lose his balance. Then Luffy hit him in the stomach area while seeing that Zoro lost his balance and that caused him to slightly lower his upper body and then Luffy went for the finishing blow with a punch to the face of Zoro.

Zoro fell to the ground, breathing heavily and Luffy did the same. He fell face first right beside the green haired boy and was catching his breath.

"I guess… You actually are… A Whitebeard.. Pirate." Zoro said causing Luffy to laugh. Both boys spent a few minutes on the nice cool ground to catch their breath and once they did, they both got up and walked to a river and sat down by the rocks in front of the river and dipped their feet in.

The silence was quite peaceful as the wind was blowing lightly. The fight took a lot longer than . The flowing river made a calm and relaxing sound. Luffy really enjoyed spending time with someone his age. Everyone else in his life was older than him so normally as a child he felt alone. That was until he met Zoro. He found his first real friend. Breaking the silence he asks "Zoro do you have a dream?"

The green haired boy looked at the sunset and said "I made a promise to become the World's Greatest Swordsman." Luffy looked at him smiled

"I think I'll be a Captain of my own crew when I get older."

"You don't want to be Pirate King?" Luffy didn't really think about his future but seeing Zoro and how he had his own ambitions, hearing the question put a spark into Luffy's head.

"You know what… Ne Zoro how about I become Pirate King and you be the World's Greatest Swordsman and we do this together. You'll be the person on my crew when I come back." Zoro laughed.

That was a bold statement coming from a kid but Zoro's goal was just as hard too so he held out his hand and said "Agreed, Captain."

As time went on, the two boys bonded by the river talking about their lives and Luffy told him about the adventures he went on and neither of them seemed to notice that their two elders were right behind them. It was only until Garp said "Luffy, it's time to go" which caught the attention of both Luffy and Zoro.

"Jii-chan guess what?" Luffy said excitedly

"What?"

"Zoro here is going to be my first mate. And I'll become Pirate King and he becomes the World's Greatest Swordsman." Garp laughed at the child. Not because of what Luffy said, but the manner he spoke. With full confidence. Seeing the bright eyes of his grandson light up made Garp smile.

"Oh Garp, I thought you'd force your grandson to become a Marine just like how you did with Dragon." says the man with glasses that was beside Luffy.

"Sensei... " said Zoro "Sorry for worrying you… I made a friend…." the green haired boy said shyly.

"No need to say sorry Zoro. Afterall, if you really going to be the first mate of the next 'Pirate King' then it would be nice to know your Captain."

"Ah Luffy, meet Koshiro Sensei. He's an old friend of mine from the Marines."

"Hi, I'm Monkey D. Luffy" says the child with a wide smile

"Hello Luffy." says Koshiro Sensei "Nice to meet you." shaking the extended hand of Luffy

Garp told Luffy to say his goodbyes because they had to leave now. There was still one more island in their way before they could make it to the Goa Kingdom and to Foosha village. Which meant that they had to hurry because people were waiting for him. Once Luffy and Zoro said goodbye, Garp turned around quickly and said "Teach him haki when you think he's ready." said Garp and he turned around to start walking again towards the ship. Koshiro chuckled and said nothing to his old friend. He just simply smiled and looked at Zoro and then walked back to the dojo.

* * *

Another day passed by and this time, the Vice Admiral told Luffy to be on his best behaviour as they were walking through a town until they reached to an isolated house. Garp had knocked on the door and a girl with orange hair and a girl with blue hair had answered the door.

"Who are you and what do you want?" says the orange haired girl

"Don't be so rude Nami." says the other

"Well, I'm here to meet your mother. I'm an old friend of hers. Tell her it's Garp." the girl in the blue hair ran inside the house while Nami stayed at the door.

"Nami huh… So you two are the reason she quit the Marines." Garp said while laughing. A couple of minutes later the girl with blue hair came and so did a woman with dark pink hair with an odd hairstyle. Both the orange haired and blue haired girl ran outside to play once they knew that Garp was a friendly.

"Now who do we have here?" asks the woman looking directly at Luffy

"I'm Monkey D. Luffy." he said with a smile

"Monkey D. huh… Don't end up like your Grandfather here okay." she says while laughing and tells the two to enter. Luffy was about to enter until the girl with blue hair asked if he wanted to play with them and Luffy looked at Garp and then went to the two girls.

The door remained opened as Garp and the woman, who had introduced herself as Bellemere, had entered the house. Luffy went up to the two girls and since they knew his name, they told him theirs. "I'm Nojiko" says the blue haired girl "And she is my sister Nami."

"Do you know how to play tag?" Nojiko asked and Luffy nodded no. He had actually never played tag before. This was his first time doing actual kid things. He normally only played with his toys and the two pets. His family would be much older than him so they wouldn't be playing children's games with Luffy. The only game they did play was hide and seek. He liked having friends his age. It was fun.

Once they explained tag to him, they started playing. Luffy was 'it' first and he started chasing both girls around the large field and yard around. The three had played for about an hour straight before finally tiring out from all that running. Belle-mere had called the three in to eat lunch so all three went inside to the dining table and saw that the food was already on the table. There was a steak dish in front of them and all five dug in once they sat down. Luffy really enjoyed the food, like always, and wanted seconds but there wasn't any so he was just gonna wait until he got back to the ship.

After everyone was done eating but still on the table, Nojiko asked Luffy what he does back home and he replied with "I'm a pirate for the Whitebeard Pirates."

"Yeah right" says Nami as she didn't believe him. "And I'm the World's Best Navigator." sarcastically

Luffy laughed a little and said "Zoro said the same thing but he said he's the World's greatest Swordsman."

"Who's Zoro?"

"My nakama. And he'll be the first person I pick up when I go on my own to become Pirate King."

"Oh Pirate King… How interesting." says Belle-mere, who was interested in Luffy.

"Hey Nami…" said Luffy with bright eyes and a smile "Wanna join my crew"

Nami looked at Luffy in a weird way. She didn't trust Luffy but he seemed like a very trustable person. Even though only a child with a huge and impossible dream, her dream was to see the entire world and draw a map of it. And that would be her best chance to do so. So she agreed. He then asked Nojiko if she wanted to come but she said she would stay to help Belle-mere out and Luffy respected that. But he did find a new friend and crewmate.

As the day went on and all five were talking for a few hours. Garp had decided to it was time to leave. When the goodbyes were said, Garp turned to Belle-mere and said "Get her observations sharp. She'll need it to become a navigator in Paradise and the New World."

Belle-mere had laughed and then said "Always as pushy as ever huh old man." and then closed the door once Luffy and Garp had walked out. She then went to Nami and was teaching her the ways of being more slick and to not get caught stealing from town.

When Garp and Luffy got to the ship, Luffy said "I love East Blue. I made new friends and nakama." with a smile

"Protect them at all costs Luffy. And to do that, you have to get stronger so we are going to train now."

* * *

The next day came by and finally they had arrived. They had arrived to Foosha village. Garp was treated like a hero by the town as he walked through. He took Luffy up to a forest and to an isolated place where he saw a green haired woman doing laundry.

"Makino!" Garp called out and the woman had looked up and ran towards Garp. Greeting him with a hug.

"Garp-san! You're here!" she says excitedly. And then she saw the young boy beside him and she exclaimed "And you must be little Luffy." she easily recognized his big brown eyes. "You don't remember me, but I was looking after you for a short time with your parents." and she picked Luffy up and gave him a kiss on the cheek and she put him down.

"Where's Dadan?" asked Garp and just as he said that, a big woman with curly orange hair and a few other with her had arrived. Dadan looked shocked to see Garp but once she saw Luffy, she flipped out.

"So you stole the brat from Whitebeard and now you're making me look after him. A son of a pirate… No thank you I already have my hands filled with your first grandson." she nagged but then said "Hello Luffy." and Luffy said hello back.

The four of them were talking for a short bit until Luffy had eventually wandered off because he heard something. Garp stopped talking and then turned around and then smiled.

Standing in front of Luffy was a kid three years older than him. He had raven hair and had freckles on his face. He wore a red sleeveless shirt and was looking at Luffy aggressively for no apparent reason.

"Luffy, I want you to meet your older brother, Ace."

* * *

 **Alright this is where I'm ending this chapter. Hope you guys enjoyed.**

 **I know the pacing might be weird for this chapter and it was all over the place but like I thought this would work out. But I really couldn't think of how to make this chapter without not meeting Zoro and Nami. I also added in Ace there at the end because of course, Luffy needed to meet Ace.**

 **Next chapter will be strictly Ace and Luffy (and Sabo). Might be a late(ish) upload because I'm not working on this during the weekend because Saturday I'm busy and Sundays are meant for Game of Thrones. Which is also why I wanted to get this chapter out today (being Friday) because I'm not doing anything fanfic related.**

 **Anyways, have a great day/weekend. Hope you guys enjoyed this chapter. As always leave a fav/follow/review and God bless.**

 **PS if I have any readers in Houston, stay safe out there…**


	6. Chapter 6

**Brothers**

"Luffy, I want you to meet your older brother, Ace." said Garp with a smile on his face

Ace was still giving Luffy an aggressive look. "Don't be rude Ace say hi now." Garp told the older child. However, he stood still, looking at the young boy in front of him. "Oh you think Luffy's just a weak little kid huh... Well why don't you fight him?" said Garp

"Garp-san, purposely letting two young boys fight isn't a good idea." says Makino as she disagreed with the idea.

"Oh come on, they're brothers. Brothers fight all the time. That's how they get stronger." he says while laughing as Makino went inside the house. Both Ace and Luffy liked the idea of the fight. Ace thought this was going to be an easy win while Luffy was just waiting to see what would happen.

The fight started when Ace charged right at Luffy recklessly and threw a couple of punches which Luffy was able to dodge because he had quite a lot of practice. Ace was surprised that the boy had dodged his punches but he wasn't done with attacking. He threw punches and kicks and all of the attacks were either dodged or blocked and it was clear that Ace wasn't trying in this fight yet but Luffy also wasn't trying for the time being. When Luffy saw an opening, he took it and aimed a punch right for the jaw of Ace, but Ace grabbed the hand and threw him down.

Luffy quickly got back up and almost like there was a light that had flickered in Luffy's eyes and that meant that the young boy was now going all out in this fight. He ran towards Ace and lashed out a series of punches aimed for Ace's body and face and some hit because they were much faster than what Ace was expecting.

Ace smirked as he noticed that his lip was bleeding and said "Not bad kid." and then again recklessly ran towards Luffy and was going to punch him but as Luffy was getting ready to block the attack, Ace moved his hand down and kicked Luffy right in the stomach and punched him in the face.

Quickly recovering from the blow, Luffy smiled "You're strong." and his eyes once again lit up brightly and he and Ace charged at each other and started an all out brawl. Both kids get hitting each other with punches and kicks. There was quite a bit of throwing, mainly Ace throwing around Luffy because the younger boy was easy to pick up, but Luffy was determined to win. This guy was stronger than Zoro but not by a lot so Luffy was genuinely having a tough time fighting Ace.

Ace too was kind of having trouble but he wasn't going to show it. This Luffy kid was a pretty good fighter and Ace was impressed. However, right now the fight was going back and forth and both kids could hear Garp giving each boy tips on what to do. But both knew that this fight was going to end soon. It was only a matter of time because both were tiring out and the damage each kid was doing was causing was eventually building up. But this was still far from over.

Luffy threw a wild punch that Ace was easily able to dodge and he decided to grab the arm of the younger boy to once again throw him, but as Ace grabbed the arm and brought him closer to throw him behind, Luffy placed a well timed kick to the stomach and then two punches in the face of Ace to knock him down.

Ace fell down while Luffy was still on his two feet, breathing heavily and sweating profusely. Garp was clapping and was very impressed with his two grandsons. Luffy went over to Ace and helped him up. But before that, the boy looked at Luffy angrily and serious until he smiled "You sure are strong huh." grabbing onto the extended hand of Luffy and got up. "But, I am kind of out of practice and I'm pretty sure you've been training with that shitty geezer."

"Oi I'm not an 'shitty geezer' I'm your grandfather." said Garp and hit Ace with a 'Fist of Love'. "Have some respect for me you damn brat."

The three of them went inside the house where Dadan and her crew of mountain bandits and Makino were sitting in peace where there was a bunch of food already prepared. Once Garp and the two younger boys sat down, all hell broke loose for the food. The bandits were grabbing quickly, Makino already peacefully took her plateful and didn't bother with going for more while Ace, Garp and Luffy were in brawl mode for the food.

Once they had been done with the food, Makino had left to go to the Party Bar to work because it was soon going to be night and usually the night would be the busiest time for the bar. Garp took the two boys and went with Makino.

While in the party bar, just before people had arrived and it was still empty, only consisting of Garp, the boys and the handful of Marine officers, Garp got a call from the den den mushi that he carried with him.

"Garp…"

"Newgate? Is everything alright?" Luffy's eyes lit up. His family called once a week to check up on Luffy but normally it was Marco or someone else. Curious, Luffy listened to the conversation

"Not really… We had to leave the island because your damn Marines got too angsty. Thatch still hasn't woken up yet but he is now on the ship." Luffy was sad. He hoped Thatch was alright. "And on top of that, Charlotte invited us to one of her tea parties which is coming up in two months and you know how those end up. So for now keep Luffy with you. Once we get done with that, we'd like him back if you don't mind."

"Okay Oyaji!" yelled out Luffy

"Ah, how are you my son? I hope you are well."

"Yeah I'm okay. I made a lot of new friends."

"Is that so? Well once you get back to us, we'd like to hear your stories." says the older pirate "Your family misses you."

"I miss you all too." says Luffy. Ace was hearing the conversation as well and on the inside, just a little bit, Ace was jealous of Luffy. He didn't know much about him but he had a family that was waiting for him. All he had was the shitty geezer, Makino and the mountain bandits. Of course he also had a friend but Ace would like to have a family. He already hated his father for causing him so much trouble and his mother had passed away giving birth to him. But he was fine with the life he had. He was going to become a pirate anyways so he would make nakama that he would consider family.

The phone call ended early and Garp made a phone call himself. The snail was ringing until eventually it was picked up "Hello?" said a voice

"Oi Sengoku… My vacation is going to be slightly longer than expected. Home problems I have to take care of."

"That's fine but if I need you, I'll call you." and he hung up the phone.

As night came and people started entering the bar, Luffy and Ace were getting along well while everyone was around Garp because he was the famous Marine hero.

"So Luffy" says Ace as he drinks some juice "We're gonna go out tomorrow okay. There's a friend I want you to meet."

"Okay." says Luffy. As the night went on, the two were talking and getting along. Luffy told Ace about his family and Ace honesty wasn't surprised that he was a pirate at such a young age. And a pirate that was apart of the Whitebeard crew was even more impressive. Ace now understood how Luffy was so strong for his age. Once Ace got to know the family, Luffy told him about the adventures he'd been on and Ace was interested. The stories were interesting and Ace really kind of understood how a pirate's life isn't so easy as he thought.

As night came, both boys fell asleep on the table with their heads down and Garp took them to Dadan's house. Just as Garp was about to leave, he felt sad. Ace was basically left alone most of his life and he knew Ace hated his father while Luffy was alone on the Whitebeard ship. They both were surrounded by people who cared from them but both boys needed someone their age to have as a friend. And as long as this vacation would last, Garp would make sure that both boys looked after each other.

* * *

When morning had come, Ace and Luffy had snuck out. Walking through the forest and climbing up some rocks, the two had made it across to the other side of the island where there was a heavy stench of garbage "Welcome Luffy, to the Grey Terminal"

"What's that?" asked the young boy looking at the huge pile or garbage "And why are we here?". Ace just kept walking for a bit and eventually made it to an area where there were trees.

"SABO!" he yells out. Waiting for a few seconds before yelling the name again he heard a voice coming from the trees.

"You're late Ace." says a boy with blonde hair and a top hat. "I already did the job in town."

"Fuck… How much money did you take?"

"A lot actually… There were a lot of tourists so it was pretty easy to steal from them." He showed Ace the money and Luffy was at awe. He was surprised a kid could steal that much money.

Sabo looked at Luffy and raised an eyebrow "Who's the brat?"

"Oh yeah… that's Luffy. I think that's my brother… Or at least that what the shitty geezer said. But that's not the point. He's actually a lot stronger than he looks. He actually beat me in a fight."

Sabo looked genuinely shocked. Ace wasn't a weak kid and the only person that could beat Ace up was himself. When he heard that Luffy beat him, Sabo was interested about just who this kid was.

"What's the money for?" asked Luffy

Both Sabo and Ace put on a smile. "That's our treasure loot. We are going to buy a pirate ship with that money."

Luffy's eyes widened. "Oh a pirate ship… You should see Oyaji's ship. The Moby is the biggest ship in the world!" he exclaimed.

"Moby?" Sabo had a confused look on his face "So you mean the Moby Dick?"

"Uh huh." with no lie in his eye

"Oh yeah… I forgot. He's been on Whitebeard's ship since he was born. He's just on vacation with the geezer."

"Whitebeard?! You mean THE Whitebeard? The World's Strongest Man Whitebeard?"

"Yup."

"That's awesome. You gotta tell me how it is." The trio took a seat down and Luffy went on explaining about his family like he did with Ace and then told different stories this time around. Ace really liked the kid and he could tell Sabo liked him too.

After spending some time talking about how life was with the Whitebeard crew, Sabo said "Well Luffy, since you are a real pirate, wanna help us steal things so we can go on our own adventures and meet with you as pirates later?"

Luffy was excited. He never had friends up until his grandfather had taken him to East Blue. He was happy to be spending time with boys around his age. "Let's do it."

"Alright so here's what we do…" And both boys explained to Luffy how they usually stole things from people in the rich part of the island. But they did tell him to be careful because they could get caught. But in Luffy's eyes, they saw a bright light and a smile and both trusted him to do his part.

Once they got into town, they all split up. They planned to meet up behind a restaurant in a few hours.

After those few hours had passed, the trio had meet in the spot they had planned. Each boy was showing much they had stolen and not surprisingly, Luffy had stolen the most. He was a lot smaller and more quiet than both of the boys so it was easy for him to go unnoticed. He was six years old while the other boys were 9. They were larger and easier to spot.

They had made their way back to the Grey Terminal and went to the spot from earlier in the morning to put the treasure in the safe area they had made. However, they had heard a group of people coming their way. Ace and Sabo knew the area well and instantly said to meet up by the big tree, which they did. Leaving Luffy alone because he didn't know where to go. It was only until both made it to the tree that they remembered Luffy didn't know the way around. And both were very worried

"You sure it was this Ace kid who took your money?" said a man who held a sword and had a tattoo on his left arm.

"Yeah." said an injured man who was ashamed that he let a kid steal his money

"This kid has to be suicidal if he wants to steal from our crew."

"Shit that guy's from Bluejam's crew…" Said Ace

"That's Porchemy… the guy who skins people alive…"

"Fuck I hope he doesn't catch Luffy." Ace said worryingly.

Just as he said that, they saw a few people reach towards something and they had gotten a hold of Luffy. Both boys cursed at themselves for leaving Luffy alone. "Ace! Help me!" he yelled and then realizing his mistake

Porchemy held on to Luffy by the shirt and said "Where is Ace?"

Making the worst lying face ever "I don't know Ace."

Both kids were surprised at how much of a bad liar he was and so was Porchemy.

"Where's our money?"

"I don't know…" making that same face

"Ahh so you don't want to talk huh. Well, I'll make you talk." and they left. Ace and Sabo's eyes widened. They had to somehow help Luffy.

"Ace… Get your gramps." Sabo said

"What? We can handle them. We don't need that geezer."

"Yes we do… Because you said Luffy is stronger than you. And he is raised by pirates. If he wanted to fight, he already would have." Sabo stared at Ace "You go run for your gramps, I'll make a trail for you to follow."

Ace took a deep breath and ran as fast as he could while Sabo stayed close behind Porchemy and followed

* * *

"Let me go!" yelled Luffy as he was tied up hanging from a tree branch "I'm not telling you anything" and the man slapped Luffy across the face, already with a bloody lip.

"He's a tough one… Bring me my gloves" he ordered his subordinates "Listen here brat. Your buddy ace stole money from our crew… So tell me where it is before I kill you."

Luffy just stared at the large man in front of him. He was stuck in a tough situation. He didn't want to rat out Ace and Sabo but he might die for not telling them. However, his resolve was strong.

EVen when Porchemy put on his spiked gloves, Luffy showed no fear. However on the inside, the little boy was terrified. He missed his family and wished they were here to save him. He wished Ace and Sabo were here but he knew they ran for their own safety (which he didn't blame them) and this might be the day that he died.

"I'll ask you this one more time… Where is Ace?" the pirate looked at Luffy with murderous intent but still Luffy said not a single thing.

Sabo was shocked. He wanted to help save the boy and yell out but if he helped and died, what was the use. And just by looking at Luffy, he knew the young boy was going to remain silent. But Sabo wondered why. He had just met the two and they kind of used him to steal more money from others. But all he could do was wait on Ace to show up with his grandfather.

* * *

Ace ran as fast as he could without stopping back to the village. He was tired and sweaty and he had many cuts along the way from hitting branches and falling on rocks. All he could think of right now was to save Luffy.

Making it to the village, he found his way to the Party Bar where he knew Garp would be at and just as he entered, he spotted Garp quickly who was at the front.

"Gramps!" yelled Ace and Garp quickly turned his head in a serious manner. Ace always called him 'shity geezer' but today he knew something was wrong.

"Catch your breath first Ace and then tell me." says the older man

"No...Time… Pirates…Took…Luffy." he said, trying to catch his breath in between words.

Garp was furious and Makino had worried eyes. The rest of the Marines were paying attention now that they found out a pirate took Garp's grandson.

"Do you know where?" he asked in a dangerous and serious tone. Ace nodded his head and took off while Garp followed behind.

* * *

Luffy was silent and still looking at the Porchemy. "You don't want to anger a pirate… Especially one like our captain Bluejam. He's a real brute." and he punched Luffy with the spiked glove landing on his face. Luffy was in pain. Porchemy kept on punching Luffy over and over either in the face or the body yet Luffy remained silent. He wanted to scream but he didn't. All he let out was silent tears mixed with dropping blood. "You guys, look out for the brats. I'll deal with him." he commanded his crew.

After continuous attacks on Luffy, the boy was near death. "Who do you think you are to keep a secret, you little brat!"

Luffy then finally spoke "I won't tell you anything." Then Porchemy had enough. He took off his gloves and picked up a sword. Luffy couldn't even open his eyes because of the injuries he sustained due to the punches. But he could feel a murderous aura. But it was an odd one, this aura was not Porchemy's. It was someone else.

"STOP IT!" a voice called out

* * *

Garp followed Ace and through the Gray Terminal and continued to run towards Luffy. Once they entered a forest area, Garp had used his Observation Haki to pinpoint exactly how many pirates there were and he counted 5. He noticed 2 young boys and one was Luffy.

Following a trail of branches, Ace stopped running and so did Garp.

"Luffy still hasn't talked." Sabo said

"What did they do?" Ace asked and Sabo explained what he saw. Garp had cracked his knuckles and looked right at the two boys.

"You two take down Luffy and take him to a hospital. If they ask who the patient is, tell them it's my grandson."

"I can fight. I can't run away" said Ace and Sabo told Ace that it wasn't a good idea. Garp almost smiled because reminded him exactly of Roger. _Like father like son_ he thought.

"Ace listen to me. Luffy needs you to be there with him. That goes for the both of you. I'll handle these idiots, you guys just get Luffy some help and quick."

* * *

Ace and Sabo ran from the bushes to stop Porchemy from cutting Luffy's head off, both yelling "STOP IT!"

Behind them, Garp also walked out and said "What have you done to my grandson." as he moved as fast as he could and took down Porchemy with one punch. Sabo and Ace quickly got Luffy down and both boys carried him to safety and listened to Garp by getting him to go to the hospital in the village.

However, Garp was surrounded by 5 pirates but that wasn't going to be enough to stop the Vice Admiral. Easily beating the lesser pirates with no trouble, He turned his attention to Porchemy who had gotten up but Garp wouldn't let him up. He punched the man again and kept punching him even when Porchemy was on the ground. He kept hitting him with haki infused punches until eventually his face became all bloody and swollen to the point where Porchemy had died.

Garp got up and felt no remorse. They hurt his grandson. And considering what Luffy had gone through, Garp couldn't care less about some stupid pirates. All he wanted to do right now was to make sure Luffy was still alive so he made his way back.

* * *

Once Ace and Sabo had gotten Luffy to the hospital, they just waited on Garp to show up. Once he did, the trio waited outside until the doctors were finished treating Luffy.

"We're sorry." said both Ace and Sabo. Garp looked at them with a raised eyebrow. "We told him to steal for us but in the end he got caught and didn't say anything."

"Now why are you boys sorry? It wasn't your fault he got caught. He just doesn't know the place. Anyways, he is a tough one. He's been living his entire life as a Whitebeard pirate. He's been through alot himself. He's not gonna die nor will he be seriously injured."

Ace then looked at Garp and formally introduced Sabo to him and then explained what they were doing all this time and honestly Garp wasn't surprised. At first Garp wanted Ace to become a Marine but when Luffy was born and given to Whitebeard, Garp stopped caring. Ace could do whatever he wanted. And if he wanted to become a pirate then so be it.

A couple of hours later, the doctor came out and had good news. He said Luffy was recovering fast and should be able to get out of the hospital by tomorrow, Right now all he was doing was sleeping for the time being but there were no serious injuries. He just looked worse than he actually was.

Both boys let out a relieved exhale while Garp was looking at the two boys. He was happy for Ace and for Luffy. He assumed Sabo had no home so he looked at the boy in blue and said "Sabo right?" and he looked back "Do you want to be my third grandson? Two of them trust you and without you leaving that trail, we might have not found Luffy on time."

Sabo was shocked. His real parents were complete assholes and he hated them. But Garp was willingly accepting Sabo. He had another home now.

* * *

The next day after Luffy had woken up, the two boys and Garp went to meet with Luffy. Garp had hugged his grandson and said he'll be fine. However, Ace wanted to know why Luffy didn't just tell Prochemy about where they were.

"Luffy why didn't you tell them?" asked Ace seriously "You could have died."

"Because... " said Luffy "If I told them, you guys wouldn't be my friends."

"But still… That was a pretty stupid thing to do you idiot."

"Because, If I told them about you, I'd have no one else." Luffy yelled. Ace, Sabo and Garp were surprised.

"But you have a family" said Ace "You can't be alone."

"Everyone's a lot older than me." Luffy said "I don't have anyone my age to play with and I feel alone because of that. If I lose you guys too, then I'd have no one to play with. I'd rather get hurt than be alone."

"Luffy…" Ace looked right into the eyes of the young boy "Do you want me to live?"

"Of course I do!" Ace looked surprised. Garp was shocked too. He didn't expect Luffy to feel alone even with his huge family. Garp had let out a smile because now the boys were getting along so well.

"Well you three brats… Come now. Let's go home and get you all some time to rest." said Garp

* * *

Days turned into weeks after Luffy had recovered. The three boys were training under Garp's rules and watchful eyes and whenever they got time off, the three boys would go back to the Gray Terminal and to the rich part of the Goa Kingdom to do their acts of piracy.

However, there was a difference from now than before. Sabo was clearly the strongest fighter, Ace was the second strongest between the two and Luffy wasn't far behind Ace and Sabo. There wasn't a big strength gap between the three boys. Luffy got the surrounding areas in his head, he was perfect with being left off all by his own. And each day, the treasure and money that the boys had "collected" was growing.

Training under Garp was more fun for the boys as they would each get hits with the famous "Fist of Love" from the old man and he was teaching them how to fight and his Marine officers were helping out too. This was the most Garp had spent time with the trio and they all seemed to love it.

Today however was a different day. Garp was busy and left for a quick job because there were pirates coming towards his way and Garp needed to make sure this this group was a 'friendly' group. So he left the three boys alone with Dadan. But Dadan wasn't having any of the boys craziness so she just placed them outside of the house and told them not to leave as she went into town.

Ace looked at the two boys and said "Did you guys know, if you share a drink, you can become brothers?" as he pulled out some liquor and three small cups

"Really?" said Luffy

"Well when the three of us get older, we aren't going to be on the same ship right, but this will bind us together as brothers! No matter what we do or where we are, nothing will ever break this bond! " he pours some sake into the cups "From today on, we're brothers!" said Ace as the three drank the liquor and almost spit it out because of the bad taste, but they all drinked it.

And from this day onwards, until the end of times, the trio known as Ace, Sabo and Luffy became brothers.

* * *

 **Alright folks… That is the end of the chapter. I hope you guys enjoyed. Next chapter will be a long one and an interesting one. Not gonna say what's going to happen but it's gonna be pretty cool and I hope it'll work out. I used kissmanga's translation for most of this chapter. And I will continue to do so for chapters that are cannon towards the manga.**

 **Sorry for the late release of this chapter, I've been busy with a lot of stuff and school for me is going to start in a few days so expect 1 chapter a week or maybe 2 chapters depending on how much I write.**

 **Anyways thanks for the reviews, follows, favorites for this story guys. Much appreciated. And of course the man Sudhush gets the s/o for putting out reviews on all of my chapters.**

 **And with that I shall see you all next week. Peace out and God bless.**


	7. Chapter 7

**A Punch as Strong as a Pistol**

It had been a month since Luffy, Ace and Sabo became the ASL trio that was well known as children thugs in the rich part of the Goa Kingdom. But to the people that knew the three, they were troublemakers yet the best brothers you could ever meet. Each looking after one another, constantly training each day to get stronger and having fun at their young age; they lived a nice life is Foosha Village.

The three along with Garp, Makino and Dadan (plus her group of bandits) were actually great caretakers for them. Letting the boys do whatever they wanted as long as it didn't cause them much harm or danger. Garp was cautious after the whole Porchemy incident.

However, today was an interesting day. Garp was expecting someone but he did not tell anyone who it was. He went to the docks with his right hand man while everyone else was at the party bar.

Ace, Luffy and Sabo were drinking juice while Makino and was serving Dadan and her bandits as well as the few Navy officers that had come with Garp on this vacation. Each little group was enjoying their time in the bar until Garp had eventually walked in with an annoyed face as a group of unexpectedly loud people had came in the bar and sat on the empty tables. There was a man with red hair and was wearing a Straw Hat. He also had 3 scars on his eye and that reminded Luffy of a painful memory.

"So why here of all places?" asked Garp "This is my island, I can literally arrest you here."

"Well you won't Garp-san. We just want some time off from the New World. My men are all tired and we've had no time to rest. This is the perfect place to stop by for a short while." his eyes caught the looks of three aggressive looking kids who were looking directly towards him. But he didn't mind them until he caught a glance at the beautiful green haired lady who was the the bartender. "Oh excuse me miss… Do you have sake for me and my men? We have the money to cover for it." as he takes out a rather large pouch filled with money and Makino kindly blushed because that was the most amount of money she had gotten even though this was a successful bar in the small town.

The young trio didn't like the man being all nice towards Makino. They assumed he would eventually try something so they walked up and confronted him "Hey you shithead!" yelled Ace, grabbing the attention of the whole bar, who had gotten very quiet.

"That's our mother okay. Don't you dare try anything on her!" Sabo said.

"Yeah! My punch is stronger than a pistol. I'll kill you bastard!" said Luffy and the man in the Straw Hat raised an eyebrow.

"Ah sorry… I didn't know she was your mother. In any case, I'll be sure to not do anything wrong." the man looked at the three. He looked at Garp with a questioned look. They were so young yet their aura was ridiculously strong for their age.

"And where did you learn those rude words?" said Makino sternly and almost disappointed at the boys

"From Gramps and Dadan!" said the three in unison, causing Dadan to curse up a storm while her bandits were trying to calm her down and Garp to laugh. Those really were his grandsons.

The man in the straw hat asked Makino if they were really her kids but she said "No. They are Garp's grandsons but I'm not their real mothers." He then turned towards Garp and asked him why they gave off such a strong aura.

Garp looked at the man with complete trust and said " Ace over here is Roger's son, Luffy is Whitebeard's son and Sabo is a son of a noble who hates his family."

"Why'd you tell him that you shit geezer!?" said Ace

"Wait you're the Gol D. Roger's son?" he asked, shocked at what he just heard

"What's it to you?"

He smiled, remembering his fun past "Roger was my Captain at one point when I was young. He was a good man. The world may hate him but those who really knew him, we all knew he was a good guy at heart."

Ace widened his eyes. This was the first time someone said anything good about Roger. Normally people would talk bad about him and say that if he had a son, he shouldn't exist but this was the first time he heard something good.

"And you said Luffy was Whitebeard's son huh? So you're the kid that was rumored to be on the Moby… What are you doing so far away from home?"

"Vacation with Jii-Chan."

"Ah, makes sense."

"And you Sabo, this is honestly the first time I've met a kid who hates the noble life. I'm glad you view the world in a different perspective." and Sabo smiled

The man with the red hair got along with the boys well. He introduced himself as the infamous pirate Red Hair Shanks and Luffy instantly recognized the name.

"Oh so you're the red hair bastard Oyaji talks about?"

Shanks laughed "Yes Luffy, I am." patting the kid on the head. He then went on a few hours of telling the boys his adventures as a pirate and told good stories about his time with the Roger Pirates. They were kids after all and he had gone through a lot of cool adventures so it was upon him to share those adventures with three young minds who clearly were going to become pirates of their own one day.

Basically the whole day was spent with the boys listening to the many stories that Shanks had told and what his crew had told. Everyone was nice to the boys and this was a relaxing day for everyone.

* * *

The next week or so went by and it was the same routine. Every morning the boys would wake up from the mountain and make their way to the party bar where Makino would already be serving Shanks and his crew. The boys would sit by and listen to the many cool stories that people had to tell and Shanks was kind of attached to the boys. He sort of felt responsible for them. He actually kept them in check for the week. They weren't allowed to steal or cause trouble, they weren't allowed to run free as they normally would. But there was very good reason for it. The rich part of the Goa Kingdom had big figures on this place and if the boys were to cause purpose or accidental trouble, all hell would break lose.

For Ace and Sabo, he was the first real good pirate they met. They wanted to be as cool and as strong as Shanks was. For them he was like a role model. For Luffy however, the older pirate was a sort of competition. He lived his life on the Moby Dick and was surrounded with good pirates but he saw all of them as family and did not look at them as competition. Sure he wanted to be as strong as them but he knew eventually they would help him become that strong while he would be there. But Shanks was a captain of his own crew, something which Luffy was going to do afterwards in the near future. To be as strong and as successful as Shanks was, Luffy wanted to be just like that and even more. Shanks didn't care for One Piece and the whole Pirate King title but Luffy did. That was his goal ever since he met Zoro and heard that he wanted to be the World's Greatest Swordsman. To be Pirate King meant to be bigger and stronger than any other pirate in the seas. That was what Luffy wanted.

The boys today made it to the bar and everything was normal. Shanks and his crew were all there and were already drinking like always and having a fun time. Shortly after the boys had arrived and sat down for breakfast that Makino had prepared for them they heard the door kicked open and everyone was quiet. The young trio turned around and saw a familiar face. He was a bandit on the other side of the mountain, from the Gray Terminal. The boys were slightly scared and Shanks had noticed and like always he remained calm and collected. Waiting to see what this guy had wanted.

"Hehe… So this is what pirates look like, huh. This is the first time I've seen pirates. They look pretty dumb to me." the man said as he walked in. The ma walked towards the front and looked to a slightly scared Makino and said "We are bandits, We're not here to cause any trouble. We just wanna buy 10 barrels of sake."

She looks at the man "I'm soo sorry. But we ran out of sake."

Ace, Sabo and Luffy looked scared, hoping the bandit wouldn't notice them and Shanks could tell these boys did not want to be found. But they were also ready to fight if anything were to happen to Makino.

"Oh? That's strange… then what are they drinking? Is it water?"

"It's sake" she replies "But that's all we have for now."

Shanks spoke up "I'm sorry. Looks like we've finished all the sake here. Sorry about that. Here… If you don't mind take the last bottle." The bandit broke the glass and the sake had spilled all over Shanks. Makino placed a hand on her mouth and the other Red Hair pirates raised an eyebrow. Ace, Sabo and Luffy were shocked to a point where their jaws were on the ground. The trio didn't expect something like that to happen to Shanks. "Shit the floor is all wet." said Shanks lightly.

"Just who do you think I am? Don't take me so lightly… One bottle is not enough! You see this?" he took out a wanted poster worth 8 million beli. "My head is worth eight million beli. I'm one of the prime fugitives here and I've killed 56 people before you cocky bastard. And now that you know who I am, don't mess with us again. After all, mountain bandits and sea pirates don't mingle very well."

Shanks did not give a single care to what the man was saying. All he was concerned about was the fact that the floor was wet. He wanted to clean it up. "Sorry and that, Makino do you have a mop?"

"Ah it's alright… I'll clean it up."

The bandit took out his sword and cut down the rest of the bottles and broke all the glasses that were remaining. Instinctively Shanks covered the trio from the glass and from the swing of the sword because it was close to them. "Well, it seems like you really enjoy cleaning. Now you can enjoy doing it more. Later you bunch of chickens." and the man and his bandits left. As they exit the door the bandit said "What a pathetic town. It doesn't even have sake. Let's move on to the next." and the door closed.

Makino rushed towards Shanks and said "Are you alright? Did you get hurt?"

"No, I'm fine." and exhaled. Once he exhaled, everyone in the bar started to laugh and joked about how pathetic Shanks was and how silly he looked. Everyone except Luffy. Ace and Sabo were laughing while Luffy was the only one angry at this whole situation.

"That was disgraceful!" Luffy yelled and again the group was quiet "Why didn't you fight him?! So what if they have more people?! Who laughs after getting picked on? You're not a man and not a pirate either!" he said

Ace and Sabo tried to calm down Luffy but seemed to notice that he didn't understand the situation.

"Look I know how you feel. But it's just a bottle of sake. There's nothing to get worked up about." Luffy stormed out walking and Shanks grabbed his arm and said "Don't leave" but Luffy got rid of the grip and had left. Ace and Sabo were going to follow but Shanks had stopped them. "Let him be for now."

* * *

The next morning, Luffy went to the party bar all by himself. Ace and Sabo were nowhere to be found and he knew Shanks and his crew went out for a supple run. He hoped Makino was at the bar which she was.

She made him breakfast like always and as Luffy ate, he was kind of sad and bored. "I really misjudged those guys! I thought they were brave and tough… Guess I was wrong."

"Are you sure about that?" she said with a smile across her face "Maybe sometimes it takes more courage not to fight." and just like that Luffy remembered Mika. At this situation, she would say something like that and Luffy widened his eyes.

"That's something mother would say. You're right Makino." and his once sad expression became normal. She just smiled and giggled at the young boy.

They heard the door open and when the two looked at who it was at the door, it was the bandit from yesterday. "Well, looks like the pirates aren't here today. It sure is quiet. We're back again." and he enters in, sitting at a table and his men followed. "Hurry up and bring us some sake woman!" he yelled

Even though Luffy was just a little kid, he couldn't let Makino be yelled at. Hell, he wanted to get revenge on behalf of Shanks.

* * *

Makino ran as fast as she sould to go and get help. The Captain wasn't there nor was Garp and his Marines. So she ran to the chief of the village.

"Chief!" she yelled "Luffy got kidnapped by bandits!" and the chief also ran out to talk to the bandits. There was a small crowd of people once Makino and the chief arrived and everyone was afraid to do anything. No one could blame them really.

"Apologize to me right now!" yelled Luffy as they kicked the boy who was on the ground.

"Apologize for what you little shit?" as the bandit picked Luffy up and threw him as hard as he could. Landing right on his face, Luffy's nose broke and blood was flowing out.

"Let him go please." said the chief. He got on his knees and begged the bandits to let Luffy go. "I don't know what he did nor do I want to argue, but I am willing to pay! So please let the child go!"

He placed a foot at the chest of Luffy and said "See now I would listen… But this fucker here insulted me. And you know what I do to bastards who insult me? I kill them." he took his sword out.

"I was wondering why no one welcomed us at the port… So this was why…" said Shanks who had unexpectedly popped up out of nowhere. "Hey, you guys are the bandits from the other day…" he saw Luffy and noticed that there was a lot of blood. The tone in his voice suddenly changed as Sabo and Ace walked up by him and saw Luffy on the ground and bloody. Two of Shanks' men grabbed the boys to make sure they didn't do anything. Benn Beckman, who was Shank's first mate had told the two boys to calm down and wait.

Shanks smiled before he spoke "Luffy! What's wrong? Isn't your punch as strong as a pistol?"

"Shut up Shanks you bastard!" yelled back Luffy

"Ahh it's the pirate… Are you going to clean up the whole town this time? But, if you come any closer, I might have to open fire on you."

Shanks walked closer until he and everyone else heard a click. "Didn't you hear? You were told not to come any closer! Do you want to get shot?" said a bandit who had pointed a gun at the head of Shanks.

Shanks cared not for the man but continued to look right into Luffy's eyes. "Well since you pulled out your gun, I guess we'll have to fight."

"Huh? What did you say?" said the bandit.

Shanks pointed towards the gun "I said, don't use this to scare people…" and a gunshot was heard. But it wasn't the bandit who fired. It was Lucky Roo who had crept up and shot the bandit in the head, while still holding onto his meat and casually taking a bite from it.

The bandit dropped and was obviously dead. Makino and the rest of the village folk were surprised. But for Luffy and the trio, the message that Shanks said wasn't directed towards the bandits. It was to the three kids. This was the first time either of them had seen someone kill anyone. Luffy killed once but he wasn't in full control of that situation and Ace and Sabo had left with Luffy when Garp killed Porchemy. The trio understood that in a fight, pulling out a gun was not a threat but an action. An action that could mean life or death. Ace, Sabo and Luffy had wide eyes. But they didn't say a word. They just looked at what was going to happen next.

"Now you've done it bastard! That was dirty!"

"Dirty?" said Benn Beckman "Don't make us laugh, You aren't fighting saints here."

"The people standing in front of you are pirates." said Shanks. "Listen well bandits…. You can whip food or sake at me or even spit on me. I can laugh it off… But, I don't care what reason you have, I won't forgive anyone who messes with my friends." he says seriously with a killing intent.

Again, the trio knew that what Shanks was talking about wasn't meant just for the bandits. It was also to the boys. When they would become pirates of their own, this advice was now in their brains. To be a big and good pirate, you can let something small that happens to you slide. But if something big were to happen to your friends, then that is when you take action.

"Ace, Sabo… On my mark, run towards Luffy as fast as you can. Take him to a hospital to fix his nose. Then all three of you meet me at the bar alright." The boys nodded "Everyone, clear out. We aren't letting these guys live. We'll clean up our mess afterwards so everyone start walking away now." and the people that were watching around had listened. They started to walk away. Shanks then gave his men a nod and he looked at Ace and Sabo who ran towards Luffy and got him out as fast as they could before the fighting would start.

Once the boys left and no one was in they way of getting hurt, Shanks took of his coat and took his sword out. "Now then… Let's start this already." as some of the bandits had rushed towards him, only to be confronted by Benn Beckman who used the butt of his rifle to beat them up. Eventually it turned into a killing fest once the leader of the bandits had enough and had charged right at Shanks. That's when the rest of the bandits also charged at the pirates and some started sword fighting while others were shooting their pistols and rifles.

Gunshots, the smell of gunpowder and the sound of clashing metal was heard throughout the entire village. There weren't many screams being heard because there weren't any. The Red Hair Pirates made quick work of the bandits while Shanks was just casually not caring about the bandit that was fighting him. It was obviously clear the he was no match for Shanks, who wasn't even close to remotely trying but once Shanks got bored enough, he quickly killed the man and sheathed his sword.

He looked at his crew and no one was injured, which was quite obvious. He then looked at the dead bodies and all blood on the floor. He ordered his men to help cleanup the mess they made once they looted the bandits because afterall they were pirates and they did just defeat an enemy.

Once the looting was over, the cleanup begun and it didn't take long to clean up the whole thing. The Red Hair Pirates had been in fights countless times on the Grand Line and in the New World to the point that the cleanup was so well organized and done quickly it almost seemed like there wasn't any fighting that took place here just moments ago.

Once cleanup was done, Shanks and his crew were on their way back to the Party Bar, but however they did meet a Garp on the way who was unhappy with something. He seemed very mad about something. Shanks wanted to approach to the man, but Garp had stormed towards a direction sign that said "Cemetery". He raised an eyebrow and continued walking until he made it to the party bar where the trio of Ace, Sabo and Luffy were already sitting at the front with Makino but there were two others already there, talking to the boys.

* * *

Once the doctors fixed Luffy's nose and told Makino (who was with the boys) how this injury should be treated, they made it to the party bar where Garp was sitting with two others and Makino had instantly recognized them. She smiled "Dragon-san! Jasmine-Sama!" and hugged the two old friends of hers that she hadn't seen since Luffy's birth.

Once the boys sat down, they had a confused look on their face. They didn't know who anyone was. But Luffy recognized them from a painting he had in his room. "Mom?" he asked the woman who had smiled and hugged Luffy. Placing a kiss in his cheek

"My goodness you've grown so much Luffy! Yes, I am your mother. I'm surprised you know."

"Painting." he said and she remembered for his first birthday she gave him a painting of her wedding with Dragon.

Dragon shook Luffy's hand and said "Hello Luffy, I'm your dad." and Luffy totally ignored that remark make by him.

"I have two new brothers now." He pointed to Ace and Sabo proudly "That one is Ace and the other one is Sabo. They are now your sons too."

Jasmine smiled and introduced herself while Dragon stood there and nodded, but then was talking to Garp about something.

All was going well until Dragon said something Garp did not like to hear and caused an uproar "WHAT?! Dragon if what you say is true then why the fuck are you here?". Everyone stopped talking and looked towards Garp and Dragon.

"I came to save this island… Or at least the people. You're here, I'm here and so is that Red Head. Three ships for all the villagers."

Garp looked like he was about to kill someone. But then his den-den mushi rang. "What? WHo is it? Don't bother me…" said the man in annoyance

"Garp, it's me." and he recognized that it was Sengoku. "I regret to inform you this but your island will be under attack tomorrow. There was a buster call towards it."

"Yes I heard." he said now even more furious

"Look the situation is messy enough already. Take as many civilians as you can and get out of there."

"Tell me this, because I do have the right to know… Why was it called now?"

"Because an anonymous informant on your island confirmed the existence of Gold Roger's son and Dragon's son. The Gorosei have called for it. They want those boys dead. Garp I don't know who to tell you this but when you leave this island, do not take the boys with you. You will endanger yourself and your boys and the civilians."

Garp had enough of the phone call. He shut the phone and stormed off. Giving Dragon an aggressive look before he left.

* * *

When Shanks had entered, he noticed the tense mood that was already set. Walking towards the front, he quickly said "Luffy… Thanks for sticking up for us." and placed a hand on the kid head and ruffled his hair. He got no reply which was odd but then he recognized the infamous Monkey D. Dragon and said "Oh Dragon… What are you doing here."

"No time to explain but tomorrow there will be a buster call over here. So we need to get everyone out and make sure the people and the boys are safe."

"Well fucking call Whitebeard at least and tell him this too. He has a right to now."

"And we shall. But first you and I are going to talk to my father." and the two left the Party Bar. The boys did not know what was going on but this thing seemed very serious. They just asked Jasmine to explain the whole situation to them to see if they could be of any help.

* * *

 **And done. I hope you enjoyed today's chapter. I know this story is being a bit too fast, but I like the pace I'm working on and this story is still far from over. I don't want to have less than 4000 words per chapter and not every chapter will have over 7000 words as you guys can tell. I used kissmanga for the translations for parts that were canon.**

 **Thank you guys for the reviews, favorites and likes. Basically school starts on Thursday and my schedule is pretty balanced out so I'll try uploading once a week from now on. I'll let you know of any changes that will occur.**


	8. Chapter 8

**Buster Call**

Dragon and Shanks were walking in silence towards Garp. Neither of them wanted to say a word but if one were to look at the two men it was obvious they were very worried about this entire situation. A Buster Call is not a laughing matter and should be taken very seriously. It destroys lives and homes and is just a horrible thing. No one except the World Government agreed with Buster Calls. It was just an unethical thing to do. To destroy a whole island for the sake of someone or something is not fair for the rest of the people who are living on the island. Why should the whole island suffer due to some "bad apples".

And even so, the last Buster Call was on an island known as Ohara. Where supposedly the people over there knew how to read poneglyphs and were considered to be people of great danger. That Buster Call resulted in the destruction of an entire island and the deaths of every civilian except an 8 year old child who was let go.

This is the exact reason why Dragon quit the Marines. He was there at Ohara. He saw what happened to the innocent people. He was there when their ship was destroyed and he was there to witness the destruction of the island. Ever since then he had trouble sleeping. He couldn't do a damn thing in the world to change that. But this time he has a chance to save the people of the island he knew. Having grown up here and knowing almost everyone on the island, he had to save them.

His own son was on the island as well. Hell the whole reason for this Buster Call was because of his son and the son of the former Pirate King. Dragon wasn't the father figure in Luffy's life but he did always want to become one. Ever since he found out his wife was pregnant he was excited. But then he left the Marines. Not only that, he wasn't able to raise his son. Instead, his son was living off with Whitebeard who was giving him a better life than Dragon ever could. If this was his chance of doing something father like for Luffy then damn well Dragon would see to it.

Breaking the silence with Shanks, Dragon said "Shanks… Stay back for a bit while I talk to my dad privately once we enter." and the red haired man nodded once he saw Garp sitting down in front of a grave.

Dragon entered and sat down right beside his father. "I'm sorry…" he said in a defeated voice, looking right into the tombstone of his mother. That was an apology to both of his parents. On one hand, he was saying sorry to his mother because he was about to leave her and her grave along with many others were about to be destroyed. He said sorry to his father because he knew that his mother was the love of Garp's life. And he was about to lose her once more. And as a son, seeing your father in a situation where he can't handle was always tough. Dragon wanted to change all of this. Hell, his instinctual reaction was to just fight off this Buster Call by himself. Which he could. He was strong enough to do so and his mythical zoan devil fruit was powerful in of itself. But he couldn't.

* * *

Garp remained silent for most part. He wanted to clear his head before taking any further actions. He was furious that a Buster Call was coming towards his home island. The island where he got married, the island where he had his son, the island where his grandson was born, and the island that was now the grave of his beloved wife. Sitting with his back straight, acting as if nothing in the world was bothering him, he had let tears flow out of his eyes. He didn't care if he was known as one of the strongest people in this world. He did not care about the title of Marine Hero. No. Right now, he was a weak and frail old man missing his deceased wife.

When Dragon had entered, he really didn't want to see his son at that moment, but he was glad to see him. Garp loved only a handful of people in this world and Dragon was one of them. And on top of that, his wife was the mother of Dragon. When his son had sat down beside him and said sorry, Garp looked at his son and and said "There's no need to be sorry. You are doing the right thing here."

"I know you were there at Ohara. I know you want that to not happen again. I know it and your mother knows it. She moved on physically but she never left us. She's always with us and will forever be with us."

Dragon let out a tear because in the end he was a son. And whenever he was in front of his mother's grave, he always shed a tear. "Don't cry now… She's not leaving us now nor are we leaving her. She even lives on in your kid. Always watching over him just as she is watching over us." he pat the back of Dragon.

"Now get up whenever you are ready. We have work to do." and with that Garp got up but just before he left, he shed one last tear and said "Goodbye my Love, I'll see you soon." and walked away to where Shanks was patiently waiting with his hat off in respect of the people who were buried at the cemetery. Dragon had shortly followed and left by saying goodbye to his mother and then went to the area where the two other men were waiting.

When Dragon arrived, Shanks spoke. "Now's the time we let Whitebeard know. His son is the one being chased after, it is his right to know just what the fuck is going on."

Garp agreed and took out his den-den mushi. Once he heard it ringing and eventually picked up by the first division commander Marco, he asked to talk with Newgate urgently.

"Garp…" Newgate said with a worried voice "We heard…"

"Any suggestions?" he asked the pirate.

"I'll send Marco and Jones right away.. They should make it by then." suggested the older man

"No… We have enough people here. Akagami is here and so is Dragon. Both including myself have ships. We have enough for the people."

"Fine… Meet me in Paradise and bring me back the boys."

"There are three boys instead of 2." said Shanks "One is Luffy and the other is Ace. But they have a third brother they won't leave behind."

"It's fine. Bring them to me. We can keep them safe and hidden."

"And I also have a suggestion. Dragon can't be seen with Ace or Luffy so we'll let him take the third one. Garp can take Ace and say he's just an orphan who lost both of his parents before all this happened and I'll take Luffy. It's safer for all three boys that way and will cause the least amount of trouble for everyone if in case we get caught."

"Figure that out between yourselves. However, I will meet you early all separately. Garp, I'll see you first, take the civilians with you and I shall meet you at an island. I'll call you once we get there. We'll find a good place for your people to rebuild their lives. Dragon I'll see you at your base in the Paradise afterwards."

"Davy should know where it is. He has an Eternal Pose to it." said Dragon

"Good. And Akagami, I'll see you in the New World. However, take your time. Don't rush. I'll let you know once I have the two boys."

"Alright." and Whitebeard hung up and so did Garp. Now that they knew the plans, they now had to go around and tell the people of the island what was about to happen in the next day.

* * *

Ace and Sabo understood what was going on once Jasmine had explained what was about to happen. The first person they ran towards and told was Dadan and like the stubborn old hag she was, she didn't listen to they boys at first but then understood that they weren't lying.

As she and her fellow mountain bandits were packing, there was sadness in the air. The Corbo Mountain was their home for many years. This was Dadan's family home for many generations and now it was about to be destroyed. Her many memories, both good and bad, were all playing back in her head. Tears rolling down her face, not even hiding it from her bandits, everyone knew this was going to be a hard goodbye. She will miss having Ace grow up here, she would miss the brats even though they weren't hers but she was their foster mother. She just hoped the boys would be fine after all of this.

* * *

On the other side, Makino was trying to take this news as calm as she could but it clearly was overwhelming her. This was the only home she knew of and had no family except Garp. The only thing to her name was the Party Bar which belonged to her parents but she was still very young when they had passed away which made Garp take her in as one of his own. And now that these two things would be gone, she didn't know what to do. She didn't know how she was going to rebuild her life. Yes she was going to live in an island with the same people but there were many things going on in her head. But she had to remain calm, if not for her sake, then for the three boys who she took care of for a short period of time. Except Ace, she was always there for Ace. She knew the boys wouldn't be with her after all this was over but she just hoped they were going to be alright. As long as they lived, she was content with however she had to live her life from now on.

* * *

Ace and Sabo were feeling very distraught. Their home was about to be destroyed. The people they cared for were going to have their lives ruined and taken away from them. Their homes were about to be destroyed. Lives were going to be needed to rebuild. It wasn't simple and they knew it.

Once Ace understood that the reason behind this whole situation was because of his and Luffy's existence, he hated his father and Luffy's father for cursing them with this life. So of course Ace had a reason to be upset. He didn't know his dad and Luffy didn't know his real dad. It was their faults. He knew that they wouldn't be accepted by the people and after this he didn't know what he was going to do. He was glad that Luffy had a home. Luffy was three years younger than Ace and so Ace was obviously protective of his younger brother. He just wished he would be able to find a home like Luffy one day. Little did he know that he was going to be apart of that very same family in a short time.

Sabo was somewhat calm but wanted to help save as many lives as he could. His life was different from Ace's. His was from a Noble bloodline but he hated his family. He hated the idea that they lived in a lavish and luxury while others have to live as if they do not matter in the world. He hated the discrimination. He wanted this to change. Yet he was just a kid. He couldn't do anything. He once read about what Buster Calls were from one of the books in his house and he remembered that the rich and noble people had special priority to get out of the island before the rest of the people. That meant that his family would have gotten escorted out by the Navy before the rest of the civilians on this island. He hated the idea of being noble. People were people and everyone was meant to be treated equally. Especially from the government but here they are treating the nobles with upmost importance and treating everyone else like garbage and filth. He was furious at this.

And because of this, he was going to be separated from Ace and Luffy. Luffy had a home to go to which he was thankful for as an older brother and he didn't really care about how he was going to live because Garp had accepted him as a Grandson. However, he couldn't focus on what his life would be like after this was over. All he was worried about right now was to save as many people as he could. But in all honesty, he was worried over nothing. He didn't know was was going to be in store for him after this was all going to be over.

* * *

Shanks and his crew were getting prepared to fight. They weren't going to take on the whole buster call, which they could, after all Shanks was one of the four Yonko. He and his crew are more than capable of stopping this by themselves. But the lives of others depended on them not to go all out in a fight. They just needed to make some time for Garp's ship and Dragon's ship to sail. Once they were going to be sailed off, they could then leave.

Consulting with his first mate, he was calm knowing that things were going to go smoothly. Garp was going to carry Ace and the civilians, Dragon was going to take Sabo and a handful of people if Garp couldn't fit everyone and Shanks was just going to take Luffy. Their job was to b the defense in case something went wrong to one of those two ships. Naturally, he was worried for the three boys for the time being, but knowing where they were going to end up, he was content. There was no place safer in the world then with Whitebeard. He kept Luffy hidden for 6 years and he could definitely keep Ace safe and hidden as well.

He also was in fear for the lives of the civilians. They turned out to be a very good bunch of people and Shanks would come here to vacation often but now that was not going to happen. He had to protect them as best as he could. He could not screw up his job of the plan. The only thing he wondered was who was going to come on this Buster Call. he expected some bigshot Marines to be in this Call due to what the reason of this Call was about. All his focus right now was on preparing for a fight. He and all of his men were serious. Not a single soul was laughing or having fun. Even Lucky Roo who was the happiest person in the world was serious. One thing for sure is things were about to get hectic.

* * *

Even though Luffy was just six years old, he understood what was going on. He wished he was older and stronger so this wouldn't happen but right now he was just a child and was weak. He loved this island. He gained a bunch of new family members. Makino and Dadan as his foster mothers who took care of them, he met Ace and Sabo and became brothers with them and he got closer with his grandad. He also met his real mother and father although he didn't really know what to do with them.

Unlike Ace, he wasn't mad at his parents but he didn't know them enough. All he knew was for the safety of himself, his parents gave him away to Whitebeard and the rest of them to which Luffy was thankful for because he had the best family.

* * *

Once the people of the village knew about the whole Buster Call that was going to happen the next day, they all had started packing their provisions and their stuff that they were able to bring. The Party Bar was closed for the night and inside the bar was the chief of the village, Garp, Shanks and his crew, Dragon, Jasmine, Makino, Dadan and her bandits along with Ace, Sabo and Luffy.

The adults were drinking sake while the kids had juice and the atmosphere in the bar was very different. Usually it would be all happy and everyone would be having fun but not tonight. Tonight the air in this bar was filled with tension. Everyone was serious and no one was in the mood for anything funny. Even the young trio were still. Normally they would be running around but at a serious time like this, they were sitting peacefully, listening to the older people talk about how tomorrow was going to happen.

However, suddenly the bar door had opened and a man with a Marine cape had walked in. He had a blue dress shirt and over his head was an eye mask used for sleeping. He was kind of tall but skinny and muscular.

Shanks had a hand on his sword while Garp looked at him like he was going to kill the man who had just walked in. However, Dragon look sort of relieved.

"And why the fuck are you here Aokiji?" yelled Garp

"I'm here because I don't want a repeat of Ohara. Tomorrow you guys need to get the civilians out of here before Akainu and the rest come." he looked around the room and noticed the three boys "I assume those two are the kids that caused this whole mess huh."

"Don't blame it on the boys." said Shanks "It's no ones fault except for the mole who told you guys."

"Why destroy the island hm?" Garp asked "Do they not know this is my home?"

The Marine looked at Garp "It's because of the fact that Dragon is your son. They said this island could become a threat and a base in East Blue for the Revolutionaries. And being home of the sons of the world's worst criminals that's more than enough reason for this whole thing." and with that Aokiji turned around to leave. But just before he left he said "Spread the boys out. Don't keep them all in one ship." and he made his exit.

Garp was as furious as he was in the morning now. The boys were completely innocent and they did nothing wrong. They did not deserve to die nor did the people of this island have to lose their homes and go for a total rebuild. But there was nothing anyone could do. This was going to happen whether they liked it or not.

The trio looked at each other and now were very worried. They did not know if they would all meet again. But they weren't saying their goodbyes just yet. They waited, hoping to see somehow that they would be kept together. They were brothers and they did not want to be separated from one another.

Shanks looked at the trio and said "We've decided." and the boys had a bit of sadness in their eyes. "Luffy you'll be coming with me. Ace you'll be with Garp. And just for precaution, Sabo you will be with Dragon." the boys got sad. They were going to be separated but none of them said anything. They knew that their lives were more important in this situation and arguing the adults would be pointless.

"But eventually you guys will be going to live on Whitebeard's ship." and Luffy was the first one to be excited. "We gave him a call earlier and he said he'd take the two of you in." he said with a smile. The boys couldn't be any happier. Even though they weren't going to be together, it'll only be for a short period of time. They would all eventually meet up at Luffy's home where they would be safe and free.

Everyone smiled once the boys were happy. There was already a lot going on because of them and they were on the verge of not seeing each other again but thankfully Whitebeard came into play.

At that moment, Garp's den-den mushi rang and he picked up. It was Whitebeard. "Dragon, you are taking no villagers with you right?" he asked to which Dragon replied no. "Take some with you. Not a whole lot but enough of them. And stay hidden. If they find out you are there then it will get even more uglier than it already is." the older man said. Dragon looked at his wife and the rest of the people in the bar and agreed. "Garp, you should leave when the nobles are getting picked up. Tell whoever is there that these are all the civilians and you are getting them to safety… Shanks, you take your time. Stay back as long as you can and if there are any people remaining, take them. If you feel like Garp or Dragon is going to be threatened you can fight but don't take on the whole Call yourself. And try to get followed. You can escape once you get to open waters."

Once everyone agreed with the plans, they made their way to prepare for the next day. It was late at night and the boys were getting tired. They were put to sleep and the adults got some rest for the night. Tomorrow was a very big day for everyone so they needed as much rest as they could get.

* * *

The morning started off in a bad way. Sirens were being blasted out loud and clear, waking the boys up from their sleep. When they awoke, the kids got ready to leave as fast as they could. The whole night they had slept in the Party Bar in Makino's room and once they had got out of the Bar, they could see many Marine ships heading towards the island. They couldn't find Garp, Shanks and the others so they decided to go grab their stuff and try to help out as many people as they could and quickly. Time was running short and everyone needed to be on one of the two ships that were carrying passengers.

While running and directing people towards the docks where the boats were, they had run into Dragon and Jasmine. They looked at the boys and Sabo knew what that meant. It was his time to leave. He said his goodbyes to Ace and Luffy and none of the boys were sad. They knew they were going to meet up eventually sooner or later. Once the goodbyes were over, Jasmine hugged both Luffy and Ace and said it was nice to meet them both and she was proud of how Luffy had grown up and she was happy to see Ace again. Placing a kiss on both of their cheeks, she left. Dragon just stood watch and waited for his wife. Once she was finished with her goodbyes they had left. But Dragon did say "We'll meet again Luffy." before he ran to where his ship was.

Ace and Luffy were now looking for Garp and Shanks. Still running around the area, they met Dadan and Garp yelling at one another.

"What do you mean you can't find her?" said Garp

"I don't know Garp-san… She was with me a few moments ago but then one second later she was gone."

"What happened?" Ace asked and Garp turned around and saw Ace and Luffy standing there.

"Makino is missing." he says and now both Ace and Luffy looked out, turning around to see if they could find the green haired lady.

They were all going to look for her but then they heard the first cannon fire at the island. A loud explosion was heard once the cannon ball had landed right on a house, causing it to explode and completely destroying it. Garp was angry and his eyes widened. They really didn't care if people were still on the island. Luffy looked at Ace and Garp who were both quite furious at what they were seeing.

Garp grabbed the boys and told Dadan to follow him but somehow Luffy got his arm out and said "I'll find Makino." Garp stopped walking for a moment but then continued on running. Ace was screaming and trying to get his grandfather to stop running but he kept continuing on running. He told Ace that Luffy would be fine and was making his way to his ship, trying to lead the last few scattered people onto his ship.

* * *

Luffy was running around frantically around the town. He couldn't find Makino no matter how much he looked and he wasn't going to stop until he found both her and Shanks. Along his way, he found many people running towards the docs and some people needed help getting out of their house so that is what the little 6 year old boy did. For his age he was abnormally strong due to being a pirate all his life but that was all being to use here as he was helping those in need of help.

However, his only goal was to find Makino. He couldn't leave her here. He just hoped to find her. Running around and dodging the debris from the houses and buildings as well as the cannon balls, he tried making his way to the Party Bar where it had been hit with a cannon ball and the explosion after it. He went inside to find the bar completely ruined and suddenly he smelled something. He didn't know what that smell was but it was strong. Following the smell, he saw a pool of blood flowing down from a pile of burning wood. For some reason, Luffy stared at the blood and the smell of the blood was strong. He felt attracted to it. He didn't know what was going on but he shook his head once he saw that there was a leg that was beneath the burning logs.

He started to remove the fiery wood off of Makino's body but they were pretty heavy and the wood was burning his small little hands and burning right through his clothes, injuring him. Once he removed them, he saw Makino all bloodied up and heavily injured. He put his ear near her mouth and could tell she was still breathing to which he was relieved to find that she bar was slowly getting on fire and by the time Luffy was able to pick her up, the fire had spread out and it was pretty bad that he didn't know how to get out without causing more harm to Makino. With determination on his mind, he closed his eyes and ran through the fire and burned down building after finding a gap for exit.

Having not opened his eyes, he kept running until eventually he bumped into someone. As he and Makino fell, he opened his eyes and saw Shanks who was panicking a whole lot when he saw Makino all bloodied up and injured. He told some of his crewmates to get her and take her to the infirmary on the ship. The next thing he did was help Luffy up and saw that the little boy himself was injured and burnt as well.

Carrying the young one in his arms, he took Luffy to the infirmary and placed him on a bed that was beside Makino. The doctors and nurses that weren't working on her were now taking care of Luffy and his injuries. Once that was done he went out on deck and met with Benn Beckman as the two were seeing the island being destroyed in front of their very eyes. Both men had a lot of anger that they wanted to take out on some poor Marine souls who dared to get in their way.

* * *

When Dragon and the people he took sailed out, watching the destruction of the island, he felt sad. Like a part of him was dying. This was his home. And seeing it being destroyed and not being able to stop it hurt him. The place where he grew up in, the place where he saw his son's birth, the place where his mother was buried. All the memories of the island that he had were now going through his mind. This feeling was the worst. And even though he was already against the World Government, he swore to himself that there would be no other Buster Calls on innocent islands. His plan was to topple down the government before they could do this again. That was a promise he made as he saw a cannon ball hit the cemetery that his mother was laid to rest in. That was also the last time he shed a tear.

For Sabo, this island was home. Being born into a rich family but hating the noble lifestyle, he wanted a way to get out of it. He wanted to change the world but he was just a kid that was still very weak. Seeing the island being destroyed by the Navy and the World Government, he lost all hope in them. There wasn't anything he could do for the moment right now but soon enough when he would get older, he was going to be a person that would be vital in the changing of the world. And being on a ship with Dragon was kind of a start to this dream of his. He would ask if one day he would be able to join the revolutionary army. But right now all that mattered was that he got out safely and so would his two brothers.

* * *

Garp wanted to kill every Marine here for destroying his home. He was furious. He definitely was going to have a clash with Sengoku when he gets back to his office. However, having to swallow that anger and ensuring the safety of Ace and the civilians, he had to remain calm. Commanding the ship and being on the phone with the Marines and telling them that he was now leaving the island with civilians on his ship, he hoped no one would check them. He wasn't worried about Ace because no one knew what Ace looked like and Garp could easily convince them that Ace is just an orphan boy that ran to his ship just before this whole thing had started. No he was worried that he might end up fighting that poor Marine officer, meaning that he is betraying his own kind. That was something Garp would not allow himself to do. He prided his work over anything and anyone but seeing his home get destroyed and seeing the grave of his dead wife being shot at, he didn't care about the Marines anymore.

Dadan was in tears. There was no hiding it from anyone. She was crying. The mountains were her home and knowing that this island was going to be completely destroyed. If it weren't for the boys, Dadan would have definitely stayed on the island and let herself die with it. She really didn't want to leave. Of course her crew did want to leave the island because they did value their lives but they knew Dadan for a very long time. She wasn't going to give up her home for anything. Everyone was thankful for the boys because once they told them to get out of here, Dadan wanted to live on for their sake and see what their futures held. She was attached to the boys. If they told her to live then by all means she will even if that meant she wouldn't be able to see them again.

Ace was mad at his father and at Luffy's father. The two good for nothing men ruined the lives of many people. He was also mad at the fact that he was too weak to stop this. He promised that after this he would become so strong that he could take a whole Buster Call all by himself and walk away with his life still intact. Seeing his home being destroyed, he hated this feeling in him. He had slight tears in his eyes as this was going on but all that he cared about was that Sabo and Luffy would be fine. He knew that he and his brothers would be safe after all of this but first they needed to get through this. Once that was over then they can move on in their next chapter in life. He promised himself that he would one day become strong enough to never let this happen to anyone else.

* * *

Shanks only recently arrived at this island. He was barely there for a few weeks but he did get to know the nice and kind people of the town. He felt bad that the innocent people on the island now had to go and rebuild a whole new life in some other island that will be in the Grand Line. He feared for their safety but he was certain that the island that they would be placed in was under the protection of Whitebeard. But they needed to get out of this situation first. As he was seeing the whole island get destroyed, he got angrier. He and his crew were getting very anxious to take down a couple of the fleet that had come to sink this island. He just hoped that Garp and Dragon would be able to leave without any trouble. And now all he could do was wait until he saw an opening to leave the island.

Luffy was shocked at the power that the Navy had. Back when he was on the Moby, no Marines would ever bother Whitebeard and the crew, only dumb pirates who thought they could kill Whitebeard fought him. The rest stayed as far away possible. But seeing this island destroyed, he was sad. He made two brothers, got closer to his grandfather, met two foster mothers and eventually met his own parents. This island had happy moments for him and even though he almost died, it was worth it being able to call Ace and Sabo his brothers. The memories of this island were going through the little boys head. He was going to miss everyone but he knew that he will one day eventually would meet them, with the exception of Ace and Sabo. Those brothers of his were going to meet his family and live with them.

* * *

Thankfully, there was no one on the island as it was sinking to the bottom of the ocean. The three ships had saved all the lives in Foosha Village and were quite happy with that. Dragon was the first ship to sail out, heading North. However, going there was pretty risky. The Navy fleet was there. All they needed to do was get past them and they could be cleared.

Shanks was looking to see if any trouble would arise. If for one second Shanks felt like there would be a problem, he would be willing to fight. But thankfully, the ship was let go. It kept on sailing and made quite some distance between the fleet. Shanks had exhaled and then turned his attention to Garp's ship which was stopped by a few ships but Garp looked calm and collected, which was great, so Shanks had nothing to worry about. And that was confirmed once Garp was able to leave the area with his ship.

However, now Shanks needed to get out of the area. And the attention of the whole Navy fleet was towards Shanks. Just before he was able to tell Luffy to get inside, the Marines had now started shooting the ship and now all Shanks could do was escape. But he wasn't going without a fight. He told his men to get ready and completely forgotten about Luffy for a few moments. He unsheathed his sword and his men were sailing right for a two Navy ships that were in his way to escape.

Cannon fire was going from both sides, however, the Marines were missing while Shanks and his crew kept on hitting them. However, one Marine ship was very bold. They sailed right towards Shanks and he told his men to prepare to get boarded. Benn took out his rifle and others got their weapons ready. Luffy was looking at the situation and thought that he could help. These Marines destroyed the homes of the people that Luffy cared about. The least he could do was put up a small fight even though he knew he wasn't going to be able to do much damage.

"Red head!" yelled out a Marine from his ship "You've got nowhere to run. And I know you are holding the son of your former Captain on your ship. Prepare to die for a young child." as he raised his arm that had suddenly turned into a large arm made of lava.

Luffy widened his eyes. He couldn't remember the name of the man but his family had told him that he was the worst Marine there was who was always in the mood to kill pirates.

"Oh you think you can take out my crew AND myself, Sakazuki? I'd love to see you try." as Shanks raised his sword and watched the Marines board his ship.

Cannon fire still coming towards them, the main focus of this was to just get out of the place but again they weren't going to leave without a fight.

As the Marines boarded, the pirates fought them off. However, this fight wasn't a one sided fight. Since Shanks and his crew were getting attacked on many sides, they were losing troops just as fast as they were killing Marines. Until eventually Sakazuki met up with the Red-Haired man and without a word said, both men started to fight.

* * *

Once the Marines boarded, Luffy ran into action like the 6 year old boy he was. Right now he had an advantage of being small so he went unnoticed as Marines kept getting hurt by something but not really seeing what was hurting them until they found out a young kid was running around.

They aimed their attack on the kid but the Red Hair Pirates would not allow that to happen. While the Marines aimed for Luffy, they aimed for those Marines. But Luffy himself wasn't putting up a bad fight by himself. Eventually, Benn Beckman caught up to Luffy and told him to stay by his side until they got rid of the Marines, to which Luffy had listened. But there was one thing no one was expecting. As people died, Luffy became a much more better fighter. It was difficult to explain what Benn thought he was looking at but he could clearly see the normally nice and happy little boy become so serious and uptight. Hell at one point, he noticed that Luffy had killed a Marine officer and that made him raise an eyebrow. A normal six year old kid should not be able to kill a full grown experienced Marine with his bare hands. Unless this child was not normal. But he also noticed that the more people died, the more angrier Luffy gotten and that was when he stopped fighting and picked up Luffy. His eyes were dark and anger was radiating off of the boy. He told Luffy to snap out of and go inside the ship until they were clear but Luffy didn't listen.

Benn chased after the boy who was running around and somehow killing people. He was shocked to see the boy so expressionless until when he got close, he noticed that Luffy's face had tears coming out from his eyes. Benn picked up the boy and calmly said "Everything's gonna be alright Luffy." and for a moment, he wasn't thinking about the battle. He was only trying to help out this little kid who looked very conflicted with himself.

In that second, a man crept behind Benn with a sword and was about to strike the man down. Luffy saw that and immediately jumped out of Benn's hand and caught the man's sword by his teeth, biting down and breaking it. However, that did injure the little boy as his mouth was bleeding. Luffy's eyes turned back to normal and then Benn once again told the boy to go hide. But this time he wanted the boy to go to the infirmary.

* * *

Luffy shook his head once he was in control of his body. He didn't know what that was but it took over him again like that time with Mikaella. He didn't know why it happened but it did. But the one thing he did notice was that it had something to do with blood. Because that was how he was able to find Makino. Through the smell of blood. He was going to ask his Oyaji once he got back to the ship, hoping that they would know that was.

But right now his concern was to get to the infirmary. But that was cut short when he got hit with magma right in his chest. Creating a big x shape. Luffy screamed out in pain. But, as he screamed, he released a wave of Conquerors Haki.

* * *

Akainu and Shanks were still going at it. Both men were landing hits on one another and both men were getting injured but they were both unbothered by the damage they took.

However, Shanks had the upper hand in this fight. His armament Haki was strong so Akainu couldn't really use his logia powers to fight the man. He had to use his brute strength and fight smartly.

About to lose the fight and possibly his life, Akainu saw a young boy who was running and activated his devil fruit powers once more and aimed at an area where he knew the boy would walk by but also where Shanks would dodge the attack.

Throwing a ball of magma like a skipping rock, Shanks knew to dodge the attack but what he wasn't expecting was that the ball hit Luffy. His eyes turned into rage when he heard the little boy scream. But turned into shock when the Haki wave was released. Many of the Marines and his pirates were knocked out and he took a look at Akainu who stopped for a moment but looked furious.

The Marines were now outnumbered by a whole lot and Akainu told the remaining conscious men to fall back to the ship and he told them to leave the ones who were unconscious.

While the confusion was going on, Akainu had again thrown a magma rock attack towards Luffy as he exited towards his own ship, only this time, Shanks was fast enough to save him, but it did cause him to get hit and the impact of the hit threw them both overboard.

* * *

As Shanks was treading in the water, the little boy who was in obvious pain now had a different set of tears. Hanging on to Shanks, he cried on his chest, holding on tightly.

"Thanks Luffy… You fought bravely." but he got no answer from him. He looked at the chest of Luffy and the injury he had gotten looked a lot worse. It was obvious he was in pain but Luffy wasn't crying about his injury.

"You're a big boy Luffy… Whitebeard Pirates don't cry… So why are you crying?'

"But Shanks…" Luffy sobbed "Your arm…"

The older pirate smiled "It's just an arm. The more important thing is you're safe. So stop crying." he said as he pat the head of the 6 year old.

Luffy stopped crying for a few moments, but then Shanks realized that Luffy lost consciousness and also noticed that there was a lot of blood that was coming out from the two of them. He told his men to hurry up and get them on board, which they did once they had realized that something was wrong.

When the two got back on board, they were immediately rushed to the infirmary where both were being treated on. Shanks told Benn to make the decisions on the ship for now and just like that, the Captain of the Red-Hair Pirates was unconscious himself. Benn was glad both were alive and were going to be just fine in the future. Right now his main focus was to get them out of here and to get his injured men some treatment.

* * *

 **And with that I am done. See you next week. Thank you for the reviews guys, I hope you all enjoyed this chapter.**

 **Made this chapter in a different way which I found would flow well. We got to see a lot of emotion and a bit of Cursed Luffy. We even got rid of Shank's arm. Cut the fight scene short because you'll get a proper fight scene in the coming chapters. I don't wanna spoil all the cool stuff I got planned for Shanks and his crew.**

 **But anyways, take care guys. Hope you enjoy the chatter, and as always feel free to leave a review/follow/favorite.**


	9. Chapter 9

**Holy shit guys I am TERRIBLY sorry… I got hit with school, got a surgery done and had a very busy semester. But now that I am on my Winter break, I should be able to give you chapters up until school starts again. I really am sorry for not uploading for the longest time, I just wasn't able to do anything non school related for ages. But I am back for now… And this will be my last One Piece cannon story (like with Luffy and everyone), but I will be uploading a new One Piece Story once this is all finished.**

* * *

 **Meetings and Reunions**

It did not take long for Luffy to wake up after the incident. After a week, the little boy woke up and noticed that Shanks was sitting in a chair right beside his bed and had his hat covering his face which meant that the older Captain was sleeping. Luffy sat up and looked around. The bed beside him had Makino who looked a whole lot better than she did and he did see a tray of food by her which meant that currently she was sleeping and was conscious. As he was looking around the large, warm and dimly lit room, Luffy wondered what time it was and where they were.

He felt a heavy stinging pain in his chest but he made no noise even though it was bothering him a whole lot. He looked down and saw his body wrapped around in bandages and he could also smell a strong ointment that was coming from it but he also noticed that the bandages had bloodstains on it.

The room was quiet and Luffy wanted to not wake anyone up so tried to lay back down but then he heard footsteps coming towards his way and he saw a large, muscular man with no hair and a blonde moustache.

"Ah Luffy… You're awake now." he said smiling at the boy. And just like that, Shanks had woken up in an instant.

"Luffy!" he said. "How are you?" he asked, happy that the boy was finally awake.

"Ask him questions in the morning. Now get out. I'm going to go change his bandages and give him medication." Shanks took his leave because he respected whatever the doctor had told him. And plus the doctor would most likely throw him overboard if he stayed in the room.

"Uh what time is it?" Luffy asked. "And where are we?"

The doctor looked at his watch and said "It is 3:38 AM. And we are still in East Blue." Luffy nodded.

"How's the pain?" he asked while taking off the old bandages.

"It stings a lot. And it feels hard to move. And it's itchy." he answered

"Well it'll be like that for a while. But you're a big boy and you are a son of Whitebeard, I'm sure you can handle this. And also since you woke up, I'm going to let you out tomorrow afternoon but every week I will see you to check the injury and I'll have one of the nurses see you every few days to change the bandages." The bandages were changed and he gave Luffy some medication and then told him that the medication would make him sleep in a few minutes.

Just before the doctor left he asked "How's Makino?"

The doctor smiled "Ah Makino-san is good. She's a tough one. She'll be out in a few days but everything is fine. She looked worse than she actually is." and he walked away to check up on another patient. Luffy laid down and closed his eyes because he was feeling very drowsy and just like that he went to sleep.

When he woke up again around the afternoon, he was surrounded by Shanks and a few nurses and the doctor. They were all happy to see Luffy awake and well. Makino was also up at the time and she was sitting up, eating her food that was given to her. Which also reminded him that he was very hungry. He looked at Makino and smiled and waved at her and she did the same. Luffy was glad to see her well after that scary incident.

A nurse had come to check on Luffy and said that he was fine to go out now but she told him that she was going to change his bandages every two days. She told Shanks to keep an eye out on him and make sure the scab dries completely and comes off before Luffy started to train again. Which the Captain said that he would make sure Luffy stays put.

When Luffy was finally let out, he saw the clear blue sky, felt the warmth of the sun on his skin and felt a nice small breeze that was blowing ever so lightly, but enough to make this the perfect day. The boy took stood on deck to see a fully repaired ship that was sailing through the East Blue. It wasn't exactly lunchtime yet so they made Luffy wait a little bit to eat a full meal but they did give him some fruits to chew on for the time being.

Luffy walked around the deck by himself. He wanted to get a feel of the ship and wanted to feel at ease after everything that had happened during the previous week. Walking around and waving and saying hi to the rest of the crew onboard, Luffy saw Yasopp staring at something. Luffy turned to see what the older man was looking at and was surprised that Yasopp was looking at an island so intensely.

Walking over, he said "Whatcha lookin at Yasopp-san?"

"Ahh Luffy!" he said happily "That over there was the island I came from." answering the question of the young child.

Luffy looked at the island and noticed something quite odd. Even though the island was far, he could somewhat see the figure of a young boy staring at them and the ship.

"Oh you noticed huh…" said the sniper who received a surprised look from Luffy "I know you can't see him fully from here but that right there is my son Usopp. I have a feeling that boy will become on fine pirate." and he walks away as the ship sails past the island.

Luffy stared at where the boy was standing and thought to himself _Usopp huh… Maybe I'll ask him when I come back_ and he walks away too, but not before he waved at the boy who clearly could not see them at this distance.

* * *

Another few days had passed and by that time, Luffy was anxious to get back to the Moby Dick. He really missed his family a whole lot and wanted to be back with them. Although he did love being around the Red Hair Pirates. They were a nice and friendly group that were like the Whitebeard pirates but Luffy was still a child. He missed home. However, they were still ways to go. However, they were _still_ in East Blue. Luffy was actually quite surprised at how large this part of the sea was.

Today was quite odd however. It was raining heavily and it seemed like it wouldn't stop for another few hours or so and no one felt like doing anything. Luffy was in the infirmary beside Makino. Keeping the young woman company while everyone was off doing whatever they were supposed to be doing.

While Luffy tried his hardest to tell Makino fun and interesting stories about his adventures with the Whitebeard pirates and she listened to them with full interest. However, Luffy was very good at reading facial expressions and body language. He could tell that Makino was still really bothered by the whole Buster Call. No one would blame her. Everyone was still upset about that. Shanks sometimes got mad at himself that he couldn't stop it. Luffy too, was mad that he was one of the reasons that the Buster Call took place. He looked at the sad mother-like figure and said "Makino… I promise that I'll never let another Buster Call happen if I can stop it. I'll get so strong that I'll take on the whole world with my crew and we'll come out the winners and no one else will have to lose their home and get hurt. I know it's not mine and Ace's fault but I'm going to get that strong that I'll be able to take down a ship with just a punch." She gave him a smile and the looked at just above the boy, who had felt a pat on the head.

"And you will get that strong. But for now, let's go and get some food." said Shanks who had just arrived. "Makino-san, I already have spoken to the head doctor and he said you can go out. The only reason why he kept you in here for an extra day was because it's raining pretty bad. But we are going out to eat. We stopped by a restaurant." Both Luffy and Shanks had helped her up and a female nurse had taken her for a shower and gave her a change of clothes.

After almost an hour later, everyone was ready to get off the ship and head into this ship-like restaurant. Once they walked in, they were greeted by an old chef that only had one leg. However, he whole aura and vibe of the place was pirate-like. Which seemed odd at first until Shanks realized who the person standing in front of them was. "Ah Red Leg Zeff. It's been a very long time." he said with a smile

"Do I know you?" said the older man

"You may not know me, but you do know of my old Captain. Gol D. Roger."

Zeff laughed "Ahh you're one of Roger's brats… Well come in. We had a very slow day today due to this fucking rain, it's nice to see some customers. Since I see it's your whole crew, I'll need an extra hand… OI YOU DAMN BRAT!" he yelled, as the crew took their seats around the area while Shanks, Benn, Lucky, Yasopp, Makino and Luffy sat separately from the rest.

"What you shitty geezer?!" yelled out a young boy with blonde hair and swirly eyebrows who had come out from the back area. He looked at Luffy and then looked at the full dining area. Zeff and the boy were talking for a short few minutes while the group was looking over the menus that were already placed on the table neatly.

When the conversation had finished and everyone knew what they wanted to order, the boy walked over to the table where Shanks and the group were sitting and said "Hello, my name is Sanji and I'll be your waiter for today. Are you guys ready to order now?" he asked, bringing up the little notepad and a pencil to write down the order. Shanks replied with yes and everyone told Sanji what they all had wanted and by the time they got to Luffy, Shanks just said bring out one of everything for him. The young chef raised an eyebrow but wrote that down in his notepad and went off to the kitchen.

Once the food had arrived, Luffy was surprised at all the variety of food that he was going to eat. His eyes lit up and his mouth watered. Salivating at how good the smell of the food was, Luffy couldn't wait to dig in and eat the whole thing all by himself.

While everyone was eating, Sanji came back to the table to check up on Shanks and the rests of the group and he could see that everyone was enjoying the food.

"Ah Sanji" said Shanks "Tell the chef that the food was great!" and with that Sanji blushed slightly but his facial expressions were read by pirates.

Luffy looked up "You cooked all this food?" he asked

"Yes I did" replied Sanji, placing a hand at the back of his neck. Shanks and the group were proud of Sanji. However, Luffy said something under his breath that only Sanji and Shanks heard. Sanji looked confused and raised an eyebrow, while Shanks just smiled.

When the entire crew was finished with their food and the weather started becoming clearer, it was time for the Red Hair Pirates to leave the restaurant and go back. They needed to get back to the New World soon so they could be in their territory instead of being in a difficult spot in the East Blue and the Grand Line.

Shanks had payed for the entire crew and handed Owner Zeff more money than they were supposed to while Luffy stood in front of Sanji. "Guess I'll see you soon huh." said Luffy and walked back to the ship once Shanks was done paying.

As the two were climbing on board, Shanks said "What's so special of this kid?"

"Sanji may not look like it, but he's strong. And he can cook." Shanks laughed, he honestly couldn't wait until Luffy got older and go off on his own.

* * *

Months after a boring stroll through the Grand Line and a one day stop at Fishman Island, the Red Hair pirates were finally back in the New World. The second they rose from underneath the sea, Luffy smiled a bright smile. He was really close to being home.

The weather was already intense as there was a very large and strong storm at the area where hey had arrived and it got to a point where Shanks had decided that the best option would be to go dock at an island that was close by.

So they did just that.

Once they arrived at the island that was close by, thankfully for them, the climate was nice. Clear skies and the island had a beach around so Shanks looked at this island and said "We'll make this our island" for no apparent reason.

When they got to the island and everyone had got off the ship, Shanks and the ranking crew mates as well as Luffy could tell there was something off about this island. There was a heaviness in the air, almost as if it was difficult to breathe. While the Captain and his crew were discussing about what they were going to do, none of them had noticed Luffy, who had a very dangerous look on his face.

The newly 7 year old boy ran as fast as he could. Running with no control of himself. Makino was the only person who saw Luffy run and yelled out "LUFFY!". This had grabbed the attention of Shanks and the entire crew. Shanks ran after him as well and suddenly he stopped running for a moment. The aura he had sensed was very familiar. Almost too familiar.

Running deep into the island and through an obvious jungle and getting hit with a heavy stench of blood, Shanks finally stopped running once he saw Luffy standing with his arms at his side, but with his hands he made a fist. Shanks looked towards the person Luffy was looking at. It was none other than the World's Greatest Swordsman, Dracule Mihawk, who was covered in blood but had his sword sheathed behind him as he was staring at Luffy.

Shanks immediately came out of his hiding spot and tried to lighten up the mood and said "Yo Mihawk, long time no see." he waved at his long time rival and friend. However, Mihawk ignored Shanks. He was still staring at Luffy intensely, almost as if he was trying to defend himself and make sure to react fast if any sudden movements were made.

"What is your name?" he asked but got no reply from the boy.

"Luffy, it's rude to not answer someone when they ask for your name." the elder pirate said sternly.

However there was still no answer. Luffy looked at Mihawk with demon like eyes and Shanks now knew something was very wrong but he did not know how to stop it.

"So now you've noticed?"

"Huh?" said Shanks who was all confused

"This kid, he's cursed." Mihawk said without any hesitation

"Cursed? What the fuck are you on about?"

"Look at his eyes."

Shanks took a peak the Luffy's eyes and realized they were almost pitch black. Also the aura around him was so heavy that even Shanks was feeling it just a little. He was very confused at the moment and did not know what to do in this situation.

"How did you know he was cursed?"

"I've seen this before… If I'm correct, then you have seen this as well. But you probably don't remember because it happened a long time ago."

"A long time ago?" said Shanks who was looking at Luffy, trying to remember this memory. "Oh shit… Are you serious? I'll be back… Just don't kill him if he does something." and Shanks ran off

"I have no intention of dying this way…" he said.

* * *

Shanks had to run as fast as he could to find Makino. That was the only way Luffy was going to be stopped at this time.

"Makino-san!" yelled out Shanks as he was running through the jungle to find her. Eventually after running around for ten minutes, he finally found her. Without saying a word, he grabbed her arm and said "Need help. Stop Luffy." and started running again. Makino did not know what was going on but she was beginning to worry because Shanks was worrying.

Once the two of them had arrived to where Mihawk and and Luffy were, they found the boy on the floor passed out on the floor and Dracule sitting down and wiping the blood off of his sword.

Shanks instinctively took out his sword and placed it arounds Hawkeye's neck while Making tended to Luffy. "What the fuck did you do?" said the captain of the Red Hair Pirates

Calmly, he said "Nothing quite frankly. One minute he was staring me down with an intense blood lust and in the other minute he just passed out. The smell of blood got to him. Probably his first time around so much death and blood. He needs to control this."

Makino took care of the unconscious Luffy as she tried to wake him up but Shanks had told her to wake him up on the ship and told her to tell Benn that they were leaving soon, which she listened to the Captain and took off with Luffy.

"Just who is that brat?"

"Ah Luffy… Well he is the son of Monkey D. Dragon, but he has grown up with the Whitebeards, where I am going to drop him off shortly. Just waiting on the old man's go."

"Dragons son? If I remember correctly, his wife is apart of the Davy family?"

"Yes."

"I see. Well I'm off. Tell the kid we'll cross paths another time." and he left, leaving Shanks alone.

* * *

Sabo was tired. Everyday he trained with the Revolutionary Army to get stronger enough to be able to protect islands and his brothers. Never again did he want to see another Buster Call.

He trained with a Fishman by the name of Hack, a giant bear looking like man who goes by Kuma, by Dragon as well as Jasmine. At this rate, Sabo's raw strength and intellect gave him an advantage over Luffy and Ace. Or so he thought.

But training throughout the journey which was for a few months, Dragon was highly impressed by the rate at which Sabo was advancing. In fact, all of the members that were in the Revolutionary Army were impressed at Sabo's growth rate. However, there was an accident which led to him having a scar on his face around the eye area but it didn't damage his sight.

However, today was the last day for his journey. As they still had many survivors from Foosball Village, they needed to drop them off to one of Whitebeard's islands where he would be waiting to pick up Sabo.

Nearing the island, Sabo could see the Moby Dick from afar. It was such a ginormous ship that it was hard not to see it. But such was expected for the World's Strongest Man.

He hoped that Luffy and Ace were on board but that was very unlikely as each of the three ships went their own separate paths. But at the same time, he did not know what to expect. He would just base off everything from what Luffy had told them about his family. He was act quite excited. He was going to be a full pirate from now on. This was his dream after all.

Sabo was in his room packing his things. And in his room was a young girl by the name of Koala and Jasmine. They both were helping him pack and for both kids could tell that Jasmine was having a hard time. She looked sad. She tried not to show it, but the two young ones could tell.

Sabo dropped his bad down and hugged Luffy's mother. "I know this isn't your first time, but don't worry. I'll be back one day and you'll be able to meet that idiot son of yours a lot more."

"You'll be back?" asked both Jasmine and Koala.

"Oh yeah.. I asked Dragon-San if I can come back to the Revolutionary Army when I get older and he said sure."

"Well Dragon did really like you as he saw you training with the group." said the assassin mother

Koala was overjoyed because there weren't many kids she was able to play with and Sabo was the only person around her age so she was happy that he would be back and most likely even stronger than he is now. She liked him and saw him as a younger brother like figure and Sabo saw her as an older sister who scolded him literally everyday. In terms of fighting, Sabo used a mixture of his brawl style as well as Fishman karate that he learned and his brain. Koala strictly used Fishman karate. But still sometimes she was able to beat Sabo. So he knew he had a long way to go.

Once the Moby Dick was near, Sabo walked on deck beside Dragon.

"Thank you Dragon-san."

He did not look at the young boy not did he acknowledge the fact that he said thank you. He just looked forward and said "I'll be looking forward to see how far you've gotten." and then silence.

Sabo knew Dragon did not talk much about Luffy but he said "Well Luffy is going to be Pirate King. I'm sure your son will even surpass me."

Dragon made it seem like he did not hear what Sabo had said because he was looking forward at a flying blue object in the sky that was circling around the ship. Not too far from his distance, he also saw a large man sitting on his throne like chair. No matter how many times he had to fight Whitebeard as a former Admiral, he was always in awe of that powerful aura around Whitebeard. That title of World's Strongest Man wasn't just for show.

When the two ships were side by side, Jasmine had took Sabo on board to the Moby and he waved goodbye and said thanks to everyone. Everyone had either waved back or said goodbye or done both. Dragon stayed quiet. Once he saw that Jasmine was coming back alone, he saw watery eyes from his wife. As she walked past him, she said something so quietly only Dragon could hear. "That's another son."

Dragon looked forward at the Moby Sick which was slowly sailing away as they had laid down anchor to get supplies from this island. "We'll see them soon" he said to himself. And he honestly couldn't wait to see them at their peaks.

When Sabo had arrived on the Moby Dick, it was not like he expected. He saw a handful of people who were laid back and not as serious as he thought they would be.

However when he saw Whitebeard, it was exactly how he pictured the great pirate in his mind. After hearing many stories from Luffy about his Pops, Sabo expected a large, relatively "Old Aged" man who had a white mustache and a black durag on his head. Sabo was in pure awe looking at the man known as the World's Strongest. And from looking at the many scars in his body, Sabo knew instantly to get to where he is at, you have to go through hell and back.

"I presume you are Sabo, a son of a Noble?"

Looking at the reaction of the small crowd, they all intensely looked at the young boy, who was scared but faced his fears and decided to keep his head up instead of fall into the pressure. After all he was going to be in the Revolutionary Army when he gets much older so he needs to be prepared for anything. "Yes I am. However, I do not care about my bloodline."

Whitebeard laughed and so did the rest of the crew "We are all children of the sea brat and don't you forget it." They were all impressed that this young kid was brave. Reminded them of Luffy.

Suddenly he felt a hand on his shoulder and he turned around to see a man with blonde pineapple like hair. "Ah so you're the first to arrive. Sorry there's no Ace and Luffy yoi… I'll take you to your room. Names Marco. I'm the first division commander. Anything you need, just let me know." and he gave Sabo a tour around the ship.

Sabo was mesmerized. He hadn't seen anything like the Moby Dick. This was a special moment. He wished he was with Ace to tour the ship but he knew that time would come eventually. But as the two were walking and getting to know one another, Sabo realized that this was the a nice group. A set of pirates that care about one another. A big family. Something Sabo didn't have when he was growing up and something Ace didn't have. He knew this would be the best place for him.

Once they got to the rooms and Sabo put down his bags, he asked if there was a training area. Marco then led him to the training area and he was shocked to see so many people training. He knew the reason why they fought was to protect one another and to protect their Oyaji and Sabo couldn't honestly wait to feel fully apart of this crew. He was excited.

Walking around to see if any of the areas weren't busy for use. He accidentally bumped into a woman. "I'm sorry I bumped into you miss." Sabo said as he bowed his head in respect.

She started laughing. Even though Sabo was relatively big, at the tender age of 10, she lifted him up with ease. "Aww Davy he's cute." and she places a kiss on the young boy's cheek and put him down

"Ah so you just be Sabo. Well, welcome aboard the Moby Dick and apart of the notorious Whitebeard Pirates." said a man holding a sword in his hand.

"I'm Davy Jones. Call me whatever you like. No need to be respectful to a man like me. And she is Mika-san. You should always respect women no matter what." Sabo shook his head in agreement as Mika had walked away.

"Alright now that she's gone, let me tell you, she is crazy. Stay away from her. And what I mean by that is try not to get injured okay. These people here training, they aren't training because they want to protect anyone or anything. They got me and Marco for that. They are just making sure they don't head up to the infirmary. Because if they do, then miss crazy doctor over there is gonna kill you." Jones did not notice Sabo's expression but the young boy was staring behind Jones instead of looking at him directly.

"And just who is miss crazy?"

"Fuck. I'm out" and the man disappeared. Sabo had no idea what just transpired but what he did learn is that he should always respect Mika-San.

"How old are you?" Mika asked

"I'm 10."

"Do you know how to swim?"

"Yes"

"Do you know how to fight?"

"Yes. I know how to use a staff or a pipe. I tend to brawl but I'm learned Fishman karate on my way here. I don't know much but the things I do know I want to perfect and refine."

"Fishman Karate? Well we have the perfect buddy for you." and she walked away again

Sabo didn't know what she meant until when she came back. But this time she wasn't alone. There was a Fishman with her. "Namur, this is Sabo."

"Sup kid."

"You now have a little underling." and she left.

Namur didn't know what she meant by that until he got to know Sabo. Namur was happy to be a senpai to the young one.

* * *

Ace was in hell. He couldn't wait to part ways with Garp. Dadan hated him even more, which was seemingly not possible but as it turns out, she really does hate Garp more than Ace at this point.

Yes he'd feed them both, yes they slept in a nice area on the ship and in actual beds, and yes they were given somewhat special treatment, however that was all at a cost. Garp made the two of them do everything. And what that meant was being the captain of the Navy ship.

All Garp did was sleep and eat and not care about a single one of his duties as a Vice Admiral. His own right hand man thought that it was impossible for Garp to be any more careless but he was wrong.

It got to a point where mostly Ace would have to do everything as leader of this navy crew and surprisingly everyone listened to the young man. He was a good captain at the age of 10. He would carry out missions in Garp's stead. There was a prisoner transfer from another Navy ship to Garp's ship and all Garp did that day was get slashed across the chest and there was a panic that the old man had died. But Ace knew better. He put out a few doughnuts by Garp's nose and the man woke up instantly. He noticed that there was blood on deck and he immediately got serious and said "who died?" and no one could look at Garp in the eyes until he looked down at his chest and saw a surprisingly big cut and then said "was it me?"

Ace REALLY hated Garp. But even though he had to do everything, this was a good experience. Even though he was going to become a pirate, no one said anything. It wasn't like the crew didn't know the destination. Of course they did. The first thing Garp told the crew was that he was going to meet with Whitebeard and give him Ace as well as give the survivors a new home. Garp's men were the most trustful and loyal marines that only followed the rules of Garp. Whatever he would do, they would follow. The bond between the group was nice. Ace did enjoy that. He got to train quite often, he even learned a few special moves that only the Navy was taught. He wasn't quite good at these moves but practice would make perfect. He thought he would have the advantage over his two brothers in just pure strength and highly doubted Luffy gained any sort of strength during his way back. He knew Sabo would have definitely gotten stronger though. So of course, he was excited to spar with his brothers once again.

His bond with Garp had gotten better over short while. Garp would never let him out of his sight whenever they decided to to to an island to restock on supplies and most importantly Garp would make sure no one dares touch Ace. Not after everything that had happened. He swore that he would protect his grandsons no matter the cost. And where they were headed was going to keep them safe for a long while until they eventually grow older and more notorious. But by then he knew that those three grandsons of his would soon not need any help necessary. They were going to be in great hands.

On the last night of the trip, just before they would meet up with Whitebeard on the island that they were dropping off the survivors. Ace and Garp were both out on deck, just enjoying the peaceful weather and calm night. Garp had doughnuts in his hands while Ace had soda. Both were quiet but the silence was peaceful. Neither really talked about what happened that night at Foosha but there was no need. As hotheaded and reckless Ace was, he did understand the situation and what would happen afterwards but there was no need. All four parties were in contact with one another and once Sabo was picked up, Ace was happy. Garp was also relieved and also knew that the survivors on Dragon's ship now had a new home to rebuild.

The silence was finally broken between the two when Garp had finished eating and said "Ace… Do you still hate your father?"

Normally Ace would have said yes instantly, and even though his father was the indirect cause for the Buster Call to occur, for some reason Ace couldn't say yes. But he also couldn't say no. He was conflicted and Garp could tell by the silence.

"Whatever you are looking for, you will find it being apart of the Whitebeard Pirates." Ace didn't know what he meant by that but he listened and took that to heart. There wasn't many times when Garp showed emotion it tonight was one of those days. And with that, it was back to silence for the two as they stared at the shining full moon.

By the time it was morning and for the first time in a few months, Garp was wearing his Vice Admiral uniform and was the first one awake on the ship. Everyone was very surprised to see that but not Ace. He knew that the geezer was anxious.

Ace was out on deck like usual, helping around the ship and but everyone could tell that there was something off. It was assumed by many that he was scared of meeting with Whitebeard but that wasn't the case for the young child.

For the first time in Ace's life, he was really going to miss Garp. Usually whenever Garp would leave, Ace didn't feel much emotion because although Garp was there, the most he'd do was toss him in a bottomless ravine, left him alone in a jungle at night, and tied him to balloons to make him float to the sky. Garp wasn't the fatherly type of man. But not this time. Not after everything had happened. Ace knew he was going to miss him.

As the ship dropped down anchor right beside the Moby Dick, the first thing that Ace was surprised by was the large size. This was the pirate ship of his dreams. He couldn't wait to see what was on board. When a bride was made between the two ships so that Ace could cross over, but before that, Ace gave Dadan a hug and thanked her for looking after him for all these years and that he was sorry for losing her home. She was a little emotional but did not show it as she slapped Ace across the cheek and said "The fuck are you saying sorry for you little shit?" and then hugged him right after.

Ace said his goodbyes to everyone on the ship but one. When it was time to part with Garp, neither Ace nor Garp showed any emotion. It wasn't like them to do so. Instead, his Ace's final words to Garp was See you soon you shitty geezer."

"Is that the way you talk to your grandpa?" angrily replying at the remark.

Ace was now crossing the bridge that was between the two ships and when he finally got on the Moby, he was instantly greeted by Sabo. The two of them hugged for a short moment and both looked back to wave at Garp, who was standing watch.

Sabo was going to be the one who was going to give Ace the tour around the ship but the first place he took Ace was to the room so he could put his bag down. Then the actual part of the tour begun when Sabo showed Ace the dining area and introduced the cooks. He went around the whole entire ship and Ace was wondering where Whitebeard would be but Sabo said that he'll see Whitebeard soon enough.

Sabo introduced the many division commanders to Ace, he showed him the training area, he introduced Namur, who was Sabo's teacher. Ace wondered if he could adjust as quickly as Sabo did. But he knew that while he still had his two brothers, he was going to be fine. And he also was going to take Garp's words seriously when he said that whatever it is that he was looking for will be found here.

Finally, after the whole tour was done, Sabo took Ace to the main deck area where Whitebeard was sitting in his chair while drinking sake. Ace was at awe just by the size of the older pirate. It was almost like living with a famous celebrity. Ace didn't know how to act so he just bowed his head and greeted himself.

"Hello Mr. Whitebeard-san, I'm Ace."

"Ace huh?" said the World's Strongest Man in a scary like tone "You're Roger's brat?"

Ace didn't know what to say. He didn't know what this would mean for him. But, he decided to say yes.

"I see. Well don't worry. Your father and I were actually good friends. Sure we were rivals and fought everytime we saw each other, but we still had that respect and were allies at one point and time."

Ace didn't know how to react at this situation.

"I trust your brother Sabo had given you a tour?"

"Yes."

"Well good, welcome to the Whitebeard Pirates. And by the way, Luffy should be coming here soon. Marco just spoke to Shanks, they'll meet with us in a week or so."

Ace and Sabo both raised their eyebrows and in joy. They were soon back to becoming a trio. Marco had walked over to where Whitebeard was and he saw the two kids celebrating the fact that the youngest was going to be back. Well, that is a pretty special occasion. Too many bad things have happened to him. And they missed a birthday. So Marco knew that there was definitely going to be a party.

* * *

 **Okay that is all for today I hope you all enjoyed this chapter.. Hopefully by Thursday the next chapter will be uploaded. I was going to add in Luffy but you guys deserve this chapter. It is a slow chapter but expect more action going forward. By the end of next chapter all three boys will be on the ship so let's see how that goes until Luffy turns 17. Okay so timeline wise Sabo came within a month after the Buster Call. Ace came a few weeks after Sabo. And Luffy will be there in another 2 weeks.**


	10. Chapter 10

**Hello guys. Early and short chapter, but it has good material that I hope you all enjoy.**

* * *

 **A New Life**

The word was given to Shanks that he and Whitebeard could meet up. Although that did mean avoiding another Buster Call like situation, this time, it was in their waters. As much as the Navy can claim that they run the New World, it still belongs to the four Emperors. Coincidentally, Shanks was one of those Emperors. So this would be an easy thing.

The reason why they didn't fight back in East Blue was because it meant risking getting Garp's ship and Dragons ship in the crossfire. Not only that, but the safety of the people of the island as well as Luffy and Ace's life meant that they could not go all out. But now they can.

However, things went surprisingly very smoothly as they were nearing the meeting point with Whitebeard. Shanks didn't think much of it nor did the crew. So they carried on until they got to the rendezvous point.

The night before the meet, Makino and Luffy had stayed up packing. He got many clothes, toys and books from the various islands that they went to. The two weren't talking much because it wasn't a sad goodbye. They would see each other every once a while because Shanks is a high ranking Pirate and an ally to Whitebeard. This was more of just Makino telling Luffy to take care of himself and the other boys.

Although Luffy was much smaller than them and younger by 3 years, it wasn't a long shot to say that he was the strongest of the three. The many things that he lacked against the two like age and height and experience, he made up by learning and refining haki. Now his Haki wasn't that good as it was just at a beginner level and including the fact that he is only 7 years old, he still had a slight advantage. Or so he thought.

When morning came and the two ships were right beside each other Shanks got new information to bring his whole crew to the beach of the island which was quite far from the docks.

Shanks and the crew along with Luffy followed. They could hear loud noises, some music and people who sounded like they were partying. When they got to the beach, the Whitebeard Pirates were actually indeed partying. There was a big sign that said "Welcome back Luffy!" and Shanks loved it. He loved parties so of course he was going to enjoy this.

Marco was obviously the first person to notice that Shanks and his crew walked in so along with the Caretakers as well as Ace and Sabo, they had ran towards Luffy and gave him hugs.

Makino was smiling at this scene and at one point wondered if Luffy could even breathe because he was being hugged so tightly. She said her Hello's to both Ace and Sabo who hugged her tightly and thought that she had died back in East Blue. Both were glad to find out that she was alive and well.

Marco, Thatch, Jones and Mika had given Luffy more than one hug. Mainly Marco and Mika. They both missed him a lot more than they should have. They then took him to Whitebeard and each time Luffy had seen a commander, he would give them hugs.

It was a fantastic reunion. Everyone was so happy and even Whitebeard was enjoying this moment. Never in his life as a father if all his children had he seen them so happy at the return of their youngest. This was a proud moment for him.

The party was stopped for a moment briefly as Thatch had bought a cake out and Marco said "Luffy yoi, since we missed a birthday this party is to make it up." and this time everyone got gifts for the young one. Some were books, toys, clothing, weapons that were child proofed and some that weren't.

At one point everyone was drunk. Well except for Marco because he physically couldn't get drunk and Jones because he stopped drinking. Their two of them were sitting with the boys and talking about things that were going to happen from now in on the Moby and it wasn't much new from what Luffy was accustomed to. Now that he was older and spent time on another ship, he did learn some responsibilities and that he and his two brothers would share them. Which made sense of course.

When that was over, Ace and Sabo pulled out too fruits with patterns and swirls around them and said that this was a birthday gift to him. Jones and Marco both looked at each other but before they could say anything, Luffy looked at them and said those are devil fruits.

"What's a devil fruit?" Ace and Sabo asked simultaneously.

"A devil fruit is a power you get. But you cannot swim after you eat the fruit." Both men went on to talk about the good and bad side effects of the devil fruits and while this was going on, they heard Luffy cough many times and when they looked at him they could not see the fruit.

Both Sabo and Ace yelled at him while Jones and Marco had facepalmed themselves. Of course Luffy wouldn't listen and of course he would eat it.

However, there was another one and Luffy could not eat two otherwise he would die. Marco would as well but Jones offered that he would sell it and give all the money to the boys but Ace and Sabo broke the fruit in half and ate it.

The two men had never seen this happen before nor did they know what type of devil fruit it was for the three of them. Ace and Sabo birth stood up and their backs we're towards Luffy while they were asking the two experienced Pirates if they could see anything, but they couldn't. However Luffy did say that both of their backs were on fire and when they turned around, they really were on fire. Jones put it out while Marco said that this was the Mera-Mera no mi and surprisingly both Ace and Sabo had gotten its power. The next thing that they wanted to know what was Luffy's ability but they couldn't notice anything different. The two of them scolded Luffy because they figured it would be a pointless devil fruit like a devil fruit that makes you into a human and as they were lifting and dragging him, Luffy's body stretched way further than it should have.

All four looked very concerned at the sight but then realized that Luffy was perfectly fine. They stretched out his arm and found out that the was a man made of rubber. Now while Jones, Ace and Sabo thought that the devil fruit power was useless, Marco couldn't wait to train Luffy. There was a lot of potential that Luffy could do with the Gomu-Gomu no mi.

"Ace and Sabo, for now we'll leave you as is, but stay close to with myself of Jones. You are Logia types and you don't know how to control your powers so best stay close to us in case anything happens." says Jones.

"Actually" says Marco "Everyone is bat shit drunk and passed out yoi. Maybe we can try to help them by controlling their powers enough to not let random fires start."

"That's not a bad idea. Okay brats, let's move to a place where there's no passed out drunkards." and the group moved a good couple of feet.

Since Marco and Jones both had a mythical Zoan devil fruits it was easy to explain to the children on what to do and how to feel their powers, while Jones told them tricks about controlling that feeling. They had done so for many hours until it was nightfall and still no one was awake.

By the time it was night, Ace and Sabo had controlled their powers enough to only let fires out when they need it. Random fires were now not an issue.

Luffy was impressed at how quickly his two older brothers were able to control their powers in just a few short hours. He couldn't wait to use his powers but he didn't know how to. He tried to listen in on what Marco was telling them but it did not work for him. He was just going to wait for a later time. For now, he was fine with being normal.

* * *

 **By the time it was morning, both ships started to fill up again while Shanks was on the Moby Dick talking to Whitebeard about a few things as he was away from the New World for quite some time.**

By the time he was about to leave, he and Luffy spoke, in front of everyone on the main deck area. "So Luffy, I won't see you for a while, do you think you'll become a commander by the time I see you again?" Shanks said almost teasingly because he knew what the answer was going to be

Luffy looked at Whitebeard and then looked at Shanks "I don't know about commander, but I will be the Pirate King."

This was the first time Whitebeard had heard about his ambitions and he raised an eyebrow. "Oh is that so? Well then here, take this." and he places his infamous straw hat on to Luffy's head. "this hat is a treasure of mine, so I'm letting you borrow it. But give it back when you become a great Pirate okay." Luffy was in tears but he did not show it. He knew how important that hat was to Shanks. And when he realized that it was his now, also considering the fact that this was goodbye for some time, Luffy was going to miss the Pirate he looked up to. After taking a deep breath, he calmed his emotions down and waved goodbye as Shanks got off the ship and boarded his own.

Both crews lifted their anchor and headed into two separate directions. Marco stood by Luffy and picked up the 7 year old. "You'll see them again."

"I know" was all Luffy had said as he stood by in silence and he watched the Red Force disappearing from his line of sight.

The trio were out in front of Whitebeard and the Caretakers as well as a few other commanders of the crew and now it was Whitebeard who wanted to catch up with this youngest son.

First he looked at the trio as a whole and asked about the whole devil fruit situation and they told Whitebeard exactly everything that happened and even he was surprised to see two people with the same devil fruit.

The next question he asked was directed towards Luffy. "Luffy, do you know what the Pirate King is?"

Everyone had their eyes on Luffy and we're waiting for a Luffy-like response but instead what they got was something much different than expected. "The Pirate King the most free person in all of the seas. I want to be that free. To sail as I please with my own crew."

Whitebeard laughed. Just like Roger. "So you want One Piece?"

"Yes."

"I can take you to it now if you'd like."

Sabo and Ace looked shocked. Whitebeard knew where One Piece is. The greatest treasure in the history of pirates, yet he doesn't want it for himself. "It's okay Oyaji. Me and my crew will find it."

"Do you know where to find this crew?"

"Zoro, Nami, Usopp, and Sanji are in East Blue. Zoro is a swordsman who fights with three swords. Nami is a navigator. I don't know anything about Usopp except that he's Yasopp's son and Sanji is a cook. I'll find more later. But they are the first." Ace and Sabo knew that these people existed but they didn't know who they were. Only Luffy met them in person.

"No Ace and Sabo?" asked the father like figure

Sabo spoke first "I'm going to be in the Revolutionary Army when I'm older."

"What about you Ace?"

"I'm gonna stay here. I know I haven't been here much long but both Makino and that Shitty Geezer told me it would be best if I stay here. So I'll listen to Makino's advice."

"Shitty Geezer?" Marco asked

"Garp" replied the trio at the same time. By then, the entire deck started laughing and then went on their own ways. Ace, Luffy and Sabo went to their room to play while the caretakers looked on, seeing the three boys go off on their own.

"He's growing up so fast." said Mika.

"Yepp. Only a few more years until he is a teen." replied Thatch "It'll be fun having them around."

* * *

It only took barely one hour for the crew to get used to the now trio of children on the Moby Dick. First there was Luffy who of course grew up on the ship and everyone knew him since birth. Sabo was the first new child to come on board. When he had arrived, he was scared at first which made sense because there was no other child on board and he did not know the crew at all. Now he was comfortable with everyone and was always ready to lend out a helping hand. All he wanted to do was learn things from the crew, whether that be in the library reading books about everything or daily everyday skills that need to be taught by experience and actually doing. Sabo wanted to soak it all in. He had finally become a pirate. He was on the ship for almost two months by now and he was enjoying every second of it.

Ace came about a month and a half ago to the crew and he was shocked to see how the Whitebeard Pirates were. They were kind and friendly to him and Sabo and he knew they would be extra kind to Luffy so he wasn't afraid of anyone hurting them. But living with the crew was something that Ace enjoyed. Thatch took him in as his pupil and taught him how to prank everyone on the ship and now Ace was a well known prankster even though it was less than a month. He was shocked with how Whitebeard treated him. Once he got around getting to know the crew, he then realized why everyone called Whitebeard "Oyaji" or "Pops". It was because he was their father figure. It didn't take too long for Ace to start calling the older pirate Oyaji and Pops too. He was now able to understand what Garp meant when they had their little talk that night he was going to leave. And he was happy with his way of life.

Luffy was happy to be back. He had missed his family. He was glad to see Thatch back healthy again, almost like nothing had ever happened. He spent the whole day with Thatch after they started sailing again. He did not leave his side and even slept with him.

After the trio had officially gotten settled and things were back on track, they started their set of chores that they had to do. Whitebeard really didn't want them doing much, but Marco deemed it necessary to have this done for the boys to know responsibility as they grow older.

Since they were kids, Marco did go easy on them with the difficulty of the chores, so he just piled them up. Neither of the trio had complained, well at least Ace and Sabo didn't. Luffy on the other hand hated this, but after Marco convinced him that this was all to being a good captain for his crew, Luffy sucked it up and did his chores without complaining but you could tell he really didn't want to do it. However, as they did grow older, their chores did raise in difficulty but it was nothing that the trio couldn't handle.

Mika had made the boys a schedule. There was their daily chores list which they had to complete by the end of the day, then there was time for food (breakfast, lunch, dinner and snacks), there was free time where the kids could run around and do whatever they want and training time. The boys had no issues with the list that was made for them and did followed everything, without skipping a single thing. They mostly wanted the free time and training time so they tried to get the chores done as fast as they could but done properly because the little things that they had to do were important to the ship itself and the crew.

Whenever the boys did their training, the caretakers usually were the ones that were working with them, however Namur was still teaching Sabo Fishman Karate which he was getting quite good at. Ace liked his raw strength and his devil fruit ability so Jozu would help out with Ace. Then there was Luffy. Marco was the one mainly with Luffy as well as Kingdew and Izo. They knew that although boxing wouldn't be his style of fighting, they still wanted his punches to be sharp and precise as well as damaging. Izo was their for Luffy's aim with his extended arms and legs with his devil fruit ability. Since he was now made out of rubber, he could stretch pretty far so they worked on his aim to make those long range attacks actually hit their opponent.

Training went well for the trio. Weekly progress was being kept by the three young ones as they would always spar with one another at the end of the week to see who progressed in what. And The race was very close. Although it was clear that in the long run, Luffy is stronger than the other two however stronger meant something completely different to each of the three. Each of the three were good at one thing that the others weren't. Ace had raw strength and was pound for pound the strongest in the group. Sabo had the best stamina out of the three. He could beat Ace a bit easier than Luffy because of how he fights Ace. But Luffy is also hyper and has an endless supply of energy to keep up with Sabo but that eventually runs out sometimes. Luffy on the other hand was different. Although pound for pound he was weaker than Ace and his stamina could run out, the one advantage he had over the two was his use of Haki. His Haki was stronger than the two so whenever it came to a clash in Haki, Luffy would always win.

This life for them was great. Not only were the trio going to be safe, they were with each other and were going to progress with each other up until Luffy leaves to become a Captain of his own. They got to train and learn from their elders, they were allowed free time and were allowed to pull pranks on one another and the crew. There were many things that they did. And also the were safe, which allowed the people who raised the boys feel more at ease especially after the Buster Call incident.

On Friday nights, the trio would spend their nights with the caretakers out on deck or some place where they could just sit down and talk about things. All of them looked forward for this because there were days when the caretakers would get busy and not help out for training or there would be missions that they would go on. However, Friday nights were their nights. They used to play cards, mainly poker, monopoly, talk, go out on islands or beaches if they were on an island. They did whatever they wanted to do. Of course Tiger Lord the cat and Stefan the dog would join in on this as well. It was a nice family. Ace had found what he was looking for and was given many reasons to live. Luffy was of course raised here since birth so he loved his family. Sabo enjoyed every moment. He didn't have this growing up when he was a Nobel but this was much better than all the wealth in the world.

Whitebeard was of course the father figure, Mika was like the mother to the trio, Marco, Jones and Thatch were the older brothers who each had different personalities that they were known for. Thatch was the prankster, Jones was the carefree brother who did whatever he wanted and let the boys do what they want when he looked after them while Marco was the serious one.

This was the family that all of them had wanted. Surprisingly, by now, Jones and Mika were now in a relationship. Although they didn't act much like it, it suited them. Only a handful of the crew knew. Besides Pops, the young trio and Whitebeard, no one else knew. It wasn't so much discrete, it was more people just thinking that the two were very close.

* * *

A few years had now passed since Luffy came back on board. And thankfully, there hadn't been many pirates that were dumb enough to fight them nor did the Marines trouble Whitebeard. Everything was peaceful, at least, on the outside.

Inside the ship was chaotic. While a 13 year old Luffy and 16 year old Ace and Sabo, those three boys were getting stronger everyday. Their devil fruit usage, Haki strength, and fighting abilities were so impressive that Whitebeard offered Ace to become the commander for the second division. Luffy and Sabo were excited for Ace. However when Ace got that offered to him, the other two brothers of his decided that this duty only belongs to Ace. They did not mind helping him out obviously but being commander was Ace's job. The three were starting to show their independence around each other on some occasions, but normally the trio did everything together. This was just one thing that Ace had to do alone because Luffy and Sabo were eventually going to leave.

Given the title of commander at the young age of 14, Whitebeard was proud of his son. He knew Ace was going to be a good match. He was a great leader and the perfect fit for commander. Charismatic, hot headed, strong, reliable and trustworthy. He would always fight instead of running away. The whole second division was known to be the "weakest" because they had no commander for a while but when Ace was given the title, the entire division was known to be the strongest. His men had found a reason to start training again as they didn't do much training because they never went on missions since the death of the old commander.

Luffy was in a different spot. He was closer to Marco than even Ace and Sabo. Although he liked being in the missions with the 2nd division, he always spent most of his days with Marco, Jones and Whitebeard. Although Jones was supposed to be Captain of the new 17th division, he gave that up for the newcomer Reyna, who was apart of this crew since that day Thatch got stabbed by Blackbeard. She was quite strong and was a capable swordswoman and also a fantastic archer. Instead, what Jones became was the second in command after Marco. Jones had the same position when he was apart of the Roger Pirates so Whitebeard saw it fitting that he holds the same position. Luffy was mixed in between the 2nd division and spending time with Marco, Oyaji and Jones. He was learning quite a lot from them.

The crew was peacefully sailing and like any ordinary day, the trio were out training with the caretakers. Each three had their own fighting style. Luffy had his rubber devil fruit abilities and his creative mind made him strong and hard to beat along with a broken boxing style due to his devil fruit. Ace relied on his devil fruit power a lot but still had his raw strength. Sabo was a fighter that likes to use a bo staff and would mix in with his devil fruit attacks. There wasn't a clear winner in terms of who was stronger between the three but everyone knew that Luffy had a slight edge over the duo because of his Haki abilities and use of it. Although Ace and Sabo had Observation and Armament, neither had Conquerors, and Luffy was able to use that quite well in fights bit by not just overpowering someone with his will, but using at as a means of a defense and offense. It was a style that worked properly only because of his creativity with his devil fruit.

Today, they were given a mission. However all of the caretakers were coming. Usually it would be one of either Jones, Marco or Thatch but today it was all three of the plus Mika. Also, the 17th division commander was going as well. The 2nd division wasn't coming as it was just for them, but the island they were going to, Whitebeard would not let his three youngest sons go alone.

It was an island that was known as Hell's Gate. It was an island filled with ruthless and strong pirates from the New World and corrupt Marines who were also not too weak themselves. Why the trio were sent on a mission was because they had a few members of their 17th division that had went earlier but they did not return. And although the trio could handle the situation on their own, Whitebeard thought that it would be better if he sent the caretakers as well as the 17th division commander. The purpose of this mission was to bring the members of the crew back.

So a group of eight had set out to this "Hells Gate" island. Once they had arrived on the island, the group made their way into the town. Marco and Sabo had pulled out the map of the town and it showed that there was a possible of four locations where they could look. The best idea was to split into groups of two and Marco already knew he was going to look after Luffy and they headed west. Thatch and Ace headed out East. Reyna and Sabo went south while Jones and Mika went north. The meeting point was back at the ship by nightfall and each group took a flare with them in case any group got lost.

Currently it was midday and the island and already it was difficult for all four groups. This island belonged to the yonko Kaido. What they were doing was something risky and can have major consequences if anything goes wrong. Which is why Whitebeard sent his older members as well as the young ones. Kaido was not someone to be messed with, however, some of the Whitebeard Pirates were captured on this island. And trying to avoid a full on war with another Emperor was a good idea. But now that the eight of them were there, they all knew that they had to be extra careful. This was going to be a very dangerous mission. And four of them were licking their lips because as dangerous as this was, this was going to be a fun mission. Ace, Sabo, Luffy and Jones were all excited. If things get bad, they are allowed to run free even if that means going to war with the so called "Strongest Creature Alive."

* * *

 **Okay so yes I know this seemed way too short. I'm sorry about that but I could not think of ways to make this longer. I need to progress with this story as I lead you all in to the final chapters (don't worry we aren't there yet). However, I do hope you all enjoyed this chapter. Next few chapters will be on this mission from the perspectives of the four groups. It won't strictly focus on one group. But with that said, Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays and have a Happy New Year!**


	11. Chapter 11

**Hello people, I know I was supposed to upload this in December, but I kind of went on an unplanned last minute trip to NYC for the Christmas holidays and stayed there until the 4th of January and then school started for me right after. But this took much more time to write and I do hope you guys enjoy the chapter. So, I'm sorry for sending you a late chapter (like always)...**

* * *

 **Enter Hell**

" _Hey shithead!" yelled a man with glasses and a scar on his right cheek to a young, lone, blonde bartender "Bring some more sake!" The bartender blinked and wiped off the sweat from his forehead. His arms were heavy as he had been working tirelessly for weeks and had gone through sleepless nights. Not only was he tired but he was also moving very slowly and in a lot of pain. Pain that should not be there._

 _He got a few bottles and put them on a table. The last bottle he had in his hand, he poured it into the empty glasses that were already on the table._

" _That a sea stone cuff?" one man asked_

" _Yessir. Lil shit got one of em devil fruits." Everyone in the room had their eyes towards the bartender._

" _That pile of shit?" asks another "What's his powers?"_

" _It's useless. It's just blue fire. And it's not even hot."_

 _Men around that table had laughed and started mocking the young boy bartender. He was used to this life. There was nothing that he couldn't handle anymore. He had been a slave since he could remember. He hated this lifestyle. But he was alive. He didn't complain. By now, he was so used to it that it didn't even matter._

 _This day was quite normal. He was working day and night to make sure the customers got what they wanted. He did not know that after this day, his life would change quite a lot._

* * *

Before the group of eight had even left the Moby Dick, Whitebeard wanted to have a few words with them. In his room currently was Reyna as she had explained the situation to the Captain.

After hearing what had happened, the elder pirate looked at her and said to get the young trio, Thatch, and Mika as well as his second in commands. He understood that this mission was very important and needed all the care in the world. His strongest sons and daughters were being sent off for a dangerous mission that could result in war with another Emperor of the New World.

Finding the trio was not difficult at all. It was past noon so they would be done with their chores and would have eaten lunch. And that meant that they would be training with someone. And sure enough, the trio were at the training grounds, sparring with one another.

The entire crew knew that Luffy was the strongest of the three because of the creativity if his devil fruit along with his fighting style and use of Haki. Other than that, outsiders wouldn't be able to tell who was stronger out of the three. All of them would push each other to the limits.

Reyna was walking towards the boys when Jones had stopped her. "Oh so now that you're a division commander you're too cool to not train anymore?"

"Oh please. This student has surpassed her master." she said with a smirk on her face, knowing full well that wasn't true.

In a blink of an eye, Jones took out his sword and placed it at her neck, with no intention of actually harming her. However, the attack was blocked as Reyna took out her sword and stared at her teacher. "Too slow." Jones said as he sheathed his sword. After spending hours daily training with Jones to become a swordsman to keep her deceased brothers sword, she knew full well what that meant. She was still slower than the man who was known as Roger's Demon.

"You're training with me. Tomorrow. First thing in the morning."

"Can't. Oyaji wants to see you." Jones took his leave from the training grounds and went to Whitebeard's room.

"Oh and if you see Marco tell him that Pops wants to see him too."

"He's in the kitchen" he says as he stretched and made his way out.

Now that she got one down, she went to the boys who had just finished their training. Usually they would be bound for a bath but she told them that Pops wanted to talk to them urgently and they got up and ran to the room where Whitebeard was in.

She went into the kitchen and saw Mika sitting with Marco. Both were eating a sandwich and drinking some coffee. Reyna did not want to interrupt the two as they were on break from their duties but she had to interrupt. She walked by the two and said that Oyaji needed to see them so they got up and said that they would go and get Thatch because they knew if the two of them were being called, so was he. She went back to Whitebeard's room and told them that they were waiting on Thatch, Marco and Mika, however the wait wasn't long. It took only a few minutes for everyone to gather in the room.

All of them were wondering why they were called and Whitebeard told Reyna o explain the whole situation. By the time she had finished her explanation that a few members of her division have gone missing and explained what the island was like, Whitebeard had looked at the group and said that this was Kaido's territory. This instantly got a reaction out of Jones and Marco. Getting a reaction was really rare out of Marco but when he did react to something, it was always something serious. And since Kaido was mentioned, Marco had raised an eyebrow. "So this means we have to be stealthy at all times." he stated, looking right at Jones

Jones answered "Not necessarily. We can waltz right in and find the crew members."

"For what? That's a lot of risk?" Mika said

"Marco's right on this. We keep this to stealth. If in fact my division members are alive, we have to keep as quiet as possible and attract less attention to ourselves." said Reyna

"There is no point in starting a war with another Yonko. It's not worth the amount of losses on both sides as well as risking a possible power struggle afterwards yoi."

Whitebeard and the boys just listened on. Jones and Marco both knew what they were doing so if Whitebeard could come up with a compromise between the two.

"Hold up though. There's myself, you, the kids, Thatch, Mika and Reyna. We can let Luffy and the girls look for them while the rest of us just attract as much attention as possible. Yes that means war but then again we can handle it. As long as the ship is out of Kaido's territory and into our seas, we have an advantage."

"Or we can let Mika run around the entire island to find the missing crew members. She does have that speed devil fruit. We can attract everyone and let her do the findings?" said Thatch.

Before more time was lost, "We'll do this." said Whitebeard and everyone's attention was to the elder man "go in as quiet and attract little to no attention as possible. If anything goes wrong, you are allowed to go and fight. The ship shall move on into our territory so in case of a fight breaking out, it favours us."

"This island has 3 parts like Reyna said. The Marine base, the area where Kaido has a fort, and the middle land. Make plans accordingly. I do suggest that you guys break up and go look." Everyone had agreed with Whitebeard and were fine with the plans. Once they left the ship and sailed towards the island, the Moby Dick was going off towards their territory so that in case a war did break out, they would be prepared for war that was most likely bound to happen due to the people going.

* * *

" _A young four year old should not be doing this line of work." said a man who was sitting behind a desk, whose face was not visible as he did not want to be seen._

" _But my Lord, he's apart of that Davy family. Surely he's perfect for that." said another man who was sitting beside the boy_

" _Davy family or not, he's too young."_

" _With all due respect, why don't we put him to a test."_

" _Fine. Take him to one of your missions. If he fails to kill the target, kill him and complete your objective."_

" _Yes my Lord."_

 _Time had passed and the boy was once again sitting in front of the man whose face could not be seen "So not only did you kill the target but you also killed my top killer. We'll use you well."_

* * *

 ***Marco and Luffy***

It wasn't any surprise when Marco had said that he and Luffy would go check one part of the island out. Marco was a very proud older brother. Ever since Luffy was told that he had a curse, he had worked a lot to control that. That blood lust was now almost non existent. It only came out when family was involved, which Jones said was fine.

Not only that, but the progress that Luffy was showing ever since he had come back from his trip was great. At the age of 13 he was a good Haki user whose Haki was as strong as a commanders. His ability to use his devil fruit powers and be creative with it to make more advantages for him was something that Marco found quite surprising. He was becoming quite smart and was learning on how to be a good captain for his crew. But he was still that idiot Luffy that he was. Never serious until it mattered and always curious and carefree.

Covering one half of this Dead Land wasn't pleasant. There were many broken down and burning houses. The atmosphere of the island was itself dangerous. Dark clouds mixed in with a red sky due to a large volcano. It was either bound to erupt or it was active yet asleep. The people on this side were all poor, many were living on the streets and there were many dead bodies on the street as well. There was nothing that could have been done to save these people. Marco was used to this scene however his youngest brother clearly was not. He was getting anxious. Luffy always wanted to help others out but he couldn't. And this could potentially be a problem.

"Luffy yoi, I know you want to help them, but right now we can't."

"I know. But I can't help it."

"Neither can I, but we have to protect the crew." he looked at the saddened younger brother of his. "Okay here's what, if anything goes down and we get the signal to go all out, we'll help these guys okay?"

Luffy's eyes lit up "Yosh!" he exclaimed and found motivation.

Walking through the broken down village like town, the two of them were trying to find some sort of clues for the missing crew members. But of course they found nothing here. This half of Dead Land was good for nothing. However, they did notice that this place had many slaves. And for an unknown reason, he seemed to have been recalling his past as they were walking. Maybe it was a sign. And maybe Jones was right. Run free on this island. Since he was against that, he was going to keep his word. No matter what the cost was.

* * *

 _A large man had walked into the bar that the young blonde boy was working in. He had asked for a few drinks for himself and for a meal. The young man had asked if the man had any money and the elder man had given him a pouch and told him to keep it. He could tell that the young boy was in distress. However, he didn't say anything as he gave the pouch away._

 _After hiding the pouch in his pocket, the boy went into the kitchen to tell the chef that he had an order to cook. And within a few minutes, the young boy had returned to the man with the drinks and food. The large man said thanks and dove into his meal. However, he was keeping an eye on the boy. As the boy returned to the front of the bar at the table, the man with glasses had confronted him and asked for the pouch that he was given. The boy did not say anything until the man grabbed the boy over the counter and threw him as hard and far as he could. The pouch had come out of his pants and the man got an empty alcohol bottle and started to beat the young boy with it. Until eventually the bottle broke and the boy was left injured._

 _He made not a single sound. To everyone at the bar, this was something that they were used to seeing. However, for the man who had given the boy the pouch, he had hated this sight. After the boy had gotten up and cleaned up the mess, the man walked towards the boy and said "I'll give you freedom. But at a cost."_

 _The boy looked at the man with disinterest. He did not want to be sold again. Many people had told him that and not once did he believe it. He was about to say no until he felt a huge weight on his body was gone. He started regaining his strength out of nowhere. He didn't understand why. Until he heard an object hit the ground. "Do you want to be my son?"_

* * *

 ***Ace and Thatch***

The second and fourth division commanders were searching the Marine base. They had a lot of ground to cover so they knew they had to be quick, silent and thorough. Ace and Thatch weren't necessarily the quiet ones on the ship due to their pranks, but when it mattered, the two of them made a very silent and deadly duo.

The entered through the back doors by killing a few guards and hid the bodies while taking their uniform to blend in. Ace hated wearing shirts ever since he was a child but once he got the Whitebeard jolly roger on his back, he never wore a shirt. Even in cold weather's he never wore anything due to the mera-mera no mi keeping him warm at all times. Thatch also had a Whitebeard jolly Roger tattoo but that was on his arm. It was the first time Ace had seen the tattoo as the two had changed into Marine uniforms. It was a lot more detailed than what was normally found on the crew. And he had the original design. The hindu Swastika with the face of Whitebeard and coveted moustache. Not only that, but Thatch had an arm sleeve tattoo and around the arm was symbols of peace from many world religions. There was also a bird that was blue and was on top of a green book. He didn't know about the green book, but the blue bird could have been Marco.

The two were walking through the many floors of the Marine base. Clearing each room, reading any information they could find and most of the stuff they did find was useless.

"These guys really don't give a shit." said Thatch

"It's making our lives easier."

"Yepp. But I do have a bad feeling about this place."

"I feel it too."

"There's a few strong ones here. Let's try not to attract their attention."

"Aw come on, let's destroy this place. Not even the Navy will care."

"It's not the Navy we care about."

"I know but still. What's he gonna do? We got Pops, Marco and Dee-chan. We're good."

"If only it were that easy Ace." he chuckled

"If only." replied Ace with a sigh as the two continued their way towards through the base.

As they walked through, the two tried to look for any sort of clues that could help them find something about the missing crew mates. However, as expected, they could not find anything. However, the two of them did not want to give up.

As they were searching for the crew members to no avail as they went through the whole base unnoticed because the Marines were too busy doing other things. They found out that they were involved in the slave trade for the civilians of the island. Them, along with Kaido have been dealing with slaves. Taking the woman as sex workers and the men doing the dirty work. Only the strong were allowed to be pirates and were forcefully given devil fruits. This got the two of them mad but they couldn't do anything for now. Right now they had to focus on finding their crew members.

* * *

 _A few short years had passed and this young boy was a renown killer. He was a murderer. And a good one too. Truly the assassin blood in him was live. But there was also something else. A massive bloodlust. A scary thing to witness. Even the most fearsome of people shook their boots when they saw the sight of a devil rampaging and killing everything in sight._

 _It was only a matter of time before he was hunted down by the very organization that took him in. Once you rival the Davy family in being known as one of the gods of the Underworld, fights were bound to break out. And he didn't want to hurt his family. So he escaped._

 _He ran and ran until he eventually passed out from exhaustion. Until he woke up with another set of chains on him. This time, he was unable to escape. He could not take off the cuffs hat were placed around him._

" _You'll work for me now boy." he said_

 _A few other years had passed and he became a bartender for a bar only for pirates. He was never given any sort of freedom throughout his life. However, as he would soon find out, things would change as two pirates had walked into a bar. One wore a straw hat and the other wore glasses. Both carried a sword and pistol. They called the bartender over to ask for some drinks and paid him extra._

 _Taking the money, he immediately handed it over to the owner that forced him to work at the bar for the past few years. As he handed the money, he was hit by the owner and was beaten for no reason. After witnessing this incident happen, the two pirates called the boy over once more and the one with the straw hat smiled. He looked at the boy and said "Wanna run free and change the whole world with the two of us?"_

 _The boy did not know how to react until he too heard a large clank on the ground. He looked at the two men and smiled with pure black eyes as a bit of his blood had reached his nose and at the top of his lip. "Run like a wild animal." said the man_

* * *

 ***Jones and Mika***

The couple were casually walking the other half of Dead Land. This part was run by pirates. And it was easily giving off a very strong aura. The people here were not weak. However, they were still weaker than the two people walking. Although Mika wasn't really a fighter, ever since Jones came to the ship, she started training with him whenever she got the chance. Which was often due to the Whitebeard Pirates not getting into any fights as everyone was scared of them and each pirate was a capable fighter. They needed strong opponents to actually be harmed.

Mika had now become a capable swordswoman, although she wasn't amazing with the sword to attract the attention of a man like Dracule Mihawk. But she was good. She also was taught how to use a pistol which was useful for certain situations. Jones took in Reyna and Mika as his students and they were taught how to fight with his style. Holding the katana backwards, as in the blade being behind him instead of in front. It was a quick unsheathe style as well as effective against many opponents, but in a 1 on 1 fight would very good due to the flexibility you have with your hand movements. Reyna was a good archer so she had amazing posture and steady hands, Mika was the ship's head doctor. She too had steady hands. Holding tools to cut or stab wasn't new to her.

They were ready for anything. Even though Mikaella was a capable fighter and could easily defend herself without any trouble, she was however, Jones' girlfriend. Of course that meant that Jones would make sure not a single thing would go near her in terms of a fight. He was still as strong as he was back when he was apart of the Roger Pirates. He just got older and less reckless.

Jones however, had no intention of finding these crew members. Instead, what he was trying to understand is why some of the places belonged to another pirate crew besides Kaido. Because the intel said that there was a fort that belonged to Kaido, yet this half of Dead Land was filled with many oher pirates. There had to be a certain reason for that. However, he did know one things. And that was that the missing crew members were not on the island. Either they died or something else had happened. So he told Mika what he had thought and she disagreed with his opinion but then she believed in him. Jones would know more about these things than anyone else. She just hoped that he was wrong and that the crew members were here and alive.

So they went on a search for information. Trying to ask around, and look for any clues as to what this island really is. Because the two of them had soon noticed that there was a lot more to this place than what it seemed.

* * *

 _Seastone cuffs had hit the ground and the young blonde boy's strength regained. Only he knew what his devil fruit was. His face had instantly regained its normal shape, it was almost like he never went through anything. The large man looked at him with a raised eyebrow when the boy said "Oyaji." to the man's question from earlier._

 _The large man laughed. He took the last sip of sake that was in his cup and said "Wonderful." and turned around to face the people behind him who had their guns pointed towards him seeing as he just freed a slave without permission or being sold to him. He looked back at the young boy and said "Watch this" with an evil look on his face as he punched the air with one of his hands, causing the air to crack like glass._

* * *

* **Reyna and Sabo***

The duo of Reyna and Sabo had to deal with the fort. If there was any place where the missing crew members were, it would be here.

"Rey-chan, how do we get in" Sabo had asked, trying to figure out a way to get in the fort without being noticed. She looked at the young boy and then looked back at the fort. There were many pirates around the fort and it was almost impossible for them to enter. The decided to go around back where they thought might have an opening for them to enter.

Going around the pirates and avoiding them completely, they made it to the back of the fort. However, there was another problem. The fort was on a cliff and the back of the fort was the end. But they did find a way to enter. They had to climb up the fort and onto the open window that was at the top. However, climbing would not be much of an issue due to Reyna being an archer. She took a long rope and tied it to an arrow and shot right beside the window. The rope came down and the two had used to rope to climb.

Once they got into the room, they had to remain stealthy and hidden from everything and anything. The room was filled with maps and papers, thankfully for the two of them, there wasn't anyone in the room nor in the area they were at. However, as they went through the fort, a lot of the doors were open. The lighting in the fort was dark and that was advantageous for the two as they wore dark clothing and both had hoods to cover their face. There was enough light to see what was in front and behind them, but there wasn't much. They just needed to be careful.

Most of the open doors were not open and only a few of them were open. However, in each room, closed or open, there were "strange" noises coming from them but both of them knew what that had meant. They soon realized that the floor they were on was the brothel area. Both hated slaves but nothing could be done for now. Their focus was to find the missing crew members.

Making their way down checking all of the floors and found no information on anything. They couldn't even find unlocked rooms but every room they passed by, it was locked and they could tell that people were in them.

This had continued until they got to the bottom floor. The only thing that had bothered them was that they did not see anyone in the fort, most people were outside and the ones inside were confined in their rooms.

This floor had only a few room and all of them were open. The two split up and checked every room for any information, and they did find things that could be important for the future but nothing about the missing crew members. Sabo was the one who found the papers that might mean something to them as well. He read the few papers and looked at Reyna "Uh Rey-Chan… I really think you need to look at this."

"What is it Sabo?" she asked as she walked towards him and took the papers from his extended hand. Glancing through and reading thoroughly her eyes had widened. "We need to tell the others and Pops about this."

Neither of them were paying any attention to the door behind them as they heard a deep and raspy voice "And just WHO said you're going to get out of this mess?" a large man wearing only a pair of pants, covered in scars and tattoos and half of his face was burnt.

"Welp, so much for stealth." as he tried to take out his den den mushi "And there goes our communication line." Sabo said as he tried to reach his fellow crew mates but could not get any signal. They were in really big trouble.

Putting the den den mushi back into his pocket, Sabo looked at Reyna and took out a metal object from his pocket. He threw it up in the air and it became a bo staff. "Shall we?" he says with a smirk

Reyna unsheathed her sword "Let's do this."

"Do not get so overconfident you little fuckers. You face the Hammer of Kaido." he says with a dangerous smile as suddenly the room fills with 6 others.

* * *

The room was crowded for the two and these guys were a lot stronger than they had expected. Reyna was busy with the large man who had a large hammer as a weapon while Sabo was fighting the bunch. Now, they weren't too strong but the small space and them outnumbering him 6 to 1 wasn't the best thing at this situation.

Right now, Sabo was focused on defense. He wasn't attacking just yet. He was waiting for a good opening. But if that meant being on the defensive side for a while, then so be it.

Reyna and the Hammer were fighting. But even for her, she was being overpowered. This was not looking so good for the two of them. The man was not even using Haki nor his devil fruit yet he was giving Reyna such trouble. It was almost like he was toying with her. There really was nothing that she could do to stop him. At least, only until she got out of this room. Until then, she saw Sabo fight and had an idea. "SABO! HIKEN!"

"You're going to get hit." he replied as he tried defending himself.

"No I won't. Go run right after. We have to get out of this room to stand a fighting chance."

Sabo tried to find other ways out of the room but Reyna was stuck fighting the Hammer. He stopped fighting for a moment and brought his fist back and yelled out "HIKEN" and aimed a punch for the Hammer, but also hitting the 6 people he was fighting. He saw that the 3 of the 6 were burning and were near death while the other three he couldn't find. He got out of the room and say Reyna as well. Instead of the sword in her hands, she was holding her bow. They had to run and get out of this place.

However, they were cut off once more. This time by three animals. One was a tiger, the other a large spider and the third was a large, unknown bird like creature. Then the three once again transformed but it was back into their human form and Sabo had realized that it was the three people that got out of the fire. Behind them, the Hammer made it out without a scratch. But it wasn't the human form of the Hammer. He was a Balrog. A winged demon creature covered with fire. "You're not the only one with tricks, fire user." he said in a deep roaring voice. He made a fist and suddenly a large sword had appeared. He aimed for Sabo but Reyna had blocked the attack with her sword that was now coated in Haki. "Don't think I'm going to let you hurt my little brother." as she now could fight freely.

Sabo took this opportunity to coat his staff in Haki and go on the offensive. With a combined effort from his devil fruit and his fighting skills, this would really be a test for him as the three men her faced were much stronger and much more experienced than him.

* * *

 ***Ace and Thatch***

The two of them really couldn't find any sort of information on the crew. However, Ace and Thatch could not let up the fact that there were slaves in the basement of this base. They really wanted to free them. And even though this was a bad choice, the two had to. They hated slave owners and the Marines on this island were involved in the slave trade. The information they found was that a lot of the slaves being traded were sex slaves and the others were just ordinary workers.

It was easy for them to get to the basement as they had blended in quite well due to wearing the Marine uniform. However, when they got there, they noticed that there were two very strong auras. And both of them were surrounded with women while the other older and younger women were forced to watch. The two men had their uniform on the ground and due to the different design, Thatch and Ace deducted that these were the Vice Admirals and were in charge. However, they were strong Vice Admirals. But something was off. They did not seem like Vice Admirals and more importantly, while the two were walking through the base, it did not seem like they were Marines at all.

Regardless if they were Marines or not, they were still going to free the sex slaves and try to get them back to their homes, if that were possible.

They waited to attack at the right moment. They did not want any of the slaves to get hurt or killed so they waited out until the Marines were done with the acts they were doing. Which didn't take long as they could hear everything that was going on. And during the whole time this was happening, Thatch and Ace really wanted to kill them. This was a really awkward situation for them but they needed to help out the poor people that were stuck here.

Once the two Vice Admirals got done with what they were doing, they told all of the slaves to go back into their cells and put their clothes back on. Once they did that, the two Whitebeard Pirates came out of hiding. Thatch looked at them with murderous intent and said "Oh boy looks like we get you hang your skulls on our ship." and took out two long daggers that looked like swords but really weren't. Ace just cracked his knuckles and lit his fists on fire. "Let's just burn them after we're done here." The two Whitebeard Pirates charged at their opponents and Thatch cut his man into two while Ace seemed to have punched a hole into his opponent and started to burn him.

Both men went down and the two started celebrating, until something unexpected happened. The man that Thatch had cut fixed himself while the man Ace had punched through and burned got back up, both perfectly fine.

"Don't think this'll be easy for you, Shirohige's pigs." said one "We are th.." and he was cut off by a Haki coated punch from Ace

"I do not care who you are… Do NOT use our father's name like that." said the fire user

"You bastard!" he said, as he picked himself up.

"Looks like we picked up strong ones huh." said the other man "Bane which pig do you want?"

"I'll take the fancy haired one. Guess you're stuck with the fire kid Sandoz."

"Hmm fire, my favorite." Sandoz said as he clenches his fists and suddenly they turned into two large rocks in the shape of boxing gloves. "Rocks can't burn."

"You can cut me all you want boy. I can regrow my limbs at any given time." Bane said to Thatch

The two Whitebeard Pirates looked at one another, they were going to be here for quite some time because these two clearly weren't weak at all.

* * *

 ***Marco and Luffy***

After not finding any information about their crew members, Luffy did notice something was odd about this part of the island and Marco didn't know exactly what he was talking about, so he let Luffy lead this so called investigation. At this situation, there was nothing that Marco could have done. So he just followed his youngest brother until eventually somehow, they got seperated. Marco would not freak out anymore because at all times he could feel Luffy's presence. So he knew he was close and was unharmed. So like any brother would do, he was going to find his youngest sibling. And maybe scold him. But he knew scolding wouldn't work on Luffy anymore.

It didn't take long for Marco to find Luffy as his presence was in one location, not moving. He wasn't worried because he couldn't feel anything or anyone else, it may have just been Luffy realizing that Marco was not behind him anymore. Which was the case as when Marco had gotten to Luffy's spot, he was stopped at a door and looked back at his older brother "Sorry…" he says with a laugh and a hand on top of the straw hat of his.

"It's alright Lu… Anyways, what did you find yoi?" he asked curiously

"I don't really know. But something behind that door seems off."

"Off?"

"I can't explain it. I don't know what it is… But it's almost like a cry for help." Marco raised an eyebrow. He looked at his younger brother and he had hoped that the missing crew members were behind that door. Luffy's intuition was never wrong. Whenever he didn't feel right, something bad always happened. However technically, ever since Ace and Sabo joined, trouble always seemed to find the three of them. Wherever they would go, trouble would soon follow, or if there was any sort of trouble anywhere, it was most likely because of the young trio.

Marco looked at Luffy and gave him clear instruction "Stay with me at all times no matter, okay Lu. Otherwise you won't get meat for a week."

That seemed to have caught the attention of the young one "Okay." he said in all seriousness. Luffy needed his meat.

Marco had carefully entered the door and had hoped that there was nothing to worry about.

* * *

 ***Jones and Mika***

"Jones if you're right about this then we have to let the others know as soon as possible." Mika said, concerned as she followed Jones, as they were making their way through the alleys of Dead Land.

"That's the problem… I can't reach them. Our communications have been cut off."

"For how long?" she sounded really concerned about the rest of her family. Everyone she truly cared about might be in imminent danger

"A good while actually. We may even already be too late. I have a very bad feeling about this place."

"But we have to find everyone and get out of here. We need to go tell Pops."

"Yes, yes we do. But first, I need to confirm this. There is no point in warning Pops about something that isn't really real. We need to find out whether if I'm right or not."

"And how do you suppose we do that?"

"Well, that's the easy part. Just follow me and don't say a word. Right now, stealth and speed is what we need."

Mika nodded her head and followed Jones. She did not know where he was going as she did not know the island nor did she remember the directions to everywhere. She just hoped that Jones was right about this. Ever since she got here, she was not feeling too well about the atmosphere of the island. It almost reminded her of her past when she was a sex slave for the group of pirates that pillaged her home island, in her past life.

However, she fought those thoughts away. Right now, she had a job. She had to help Jones confirm his suspicions and find the other crew members that were scattered around the island, trying to look for the missing ones.

Slowly making their way, they soon entered an old building and it was very dark. Mika could not see anything at all. She was on edge as she entered as she could not see Jones nor feel his presence. Suddenly, she felt a hand grab onto her arm and another hand covering her mouth, and for a moment, she felt fear. Until she recognized the touch of the person. It was Jones.

He whispered ever so quietly into her ear "Calm down, it's just me. Hold my hand and do not let go. You can't see in the dark but I can, and if we need to run, I will carry you alright. Just stay as quiet as possible and walk in front of me. I'll guide you through. My hands will be on your hips at all times and I'll tell you if anything is in your way. I promise I will not let anything happen to you." She nodded and then kissed the man on his cheek. She obviously trusted him with her life and she knew he would not let anything happen to her. "This might take long to get through, but just let me guide the way okay." And again, she nodded.

* * *

 ***Marco and Luffy***

Upon entering the building, it was old and empty. however , that did not mean that the two of them could be so relaxed. However, there was a horrid smell that instantly hit the two as they walked in. Marco took out a handkerchief from his shorts that was hanging around and was about to tie it to his face to avoid most of the smell but he saw Luffy who had nothing and tried to cover it with his arm. He made the handkerchief into a mask and put it in Luffy's face. He then remembered that he had a sash on around his waist so he took that off and tied it as a scarf around his face so that he wouldn't get hit with the bad smell that was coming from the building.

Walking through, the light seemed to have been dimming slowly each time until eventually there was no light, but there was a door leading towards downstairs which was also dimly lit. The two went down as they couldn't find anywhere else to go, but this time, Luffy was leading instead of Marco once more, and Marco this time would not leave Luffy out of his sight.

There was something that was attracting Luffy to go downstairs and by the time they got down the flight of stairs, Marco then understood what was giving Luffy this feeling. This place's whole basement was filled with young children. Most of them seemed to be like slaves, while the others were experiments. At least, that's what the labels on top of the cells had said. All of the children started to yell and cry for help.

Marco looked at the children and instantly he knew that he had to help them. All throughout the day, he was having flashbacks of his past and he didn't know why. At least, now he knows what to do. Even though this might cause some trouble for the entire Whitebeard Pirates as a whole, he had to. He knew all too well that being a slave was the worst thing he had to go through in his life. He knew exactly what the kids were feeling.

Suddenly, there was another presence that made its way to the room where the two of them were. Marco looked at the person entering and it was a woman. Wearing all black, showing a pale white face with red eyes, she looked at the two Whitebeard Pirates and said "Although I disagree with keeping young children as slaves, by the order of my Captain, I will have to stop you from freeing them." she looks at Marco with her blood red eyes "I won't harm the kid, but you… Your blood smells nice. I wonder what it'll taste like, Phoenix-san." she said seductively, as she smiles, showing her fangs.

"You're a vampire yoi?" and he looks at Luffy, "Stay back… I'll take her." Luffy nodded in agreement. Marco had waited for the woman to make move, however, he did transform into his half Phoenix form. But instead of making his arms into wings, he put wings on his back, kept his arms normal, and had changed his legs into talons. He also took out his sword that he took with him and she unsheathed her large dagger.

The two had a stare down before the first move was made, Marco could tell that she wasn't weak and could possibly keep up with him, however something else was going on at the same time. His attention wasn't towards Luffy. Luffy for an unknown reason, was slowly getting angrier by the second. He looked around the room and his sense of smell was very strong. This far into whatever was going on, Luffy knew that he was not in control of his body anymore. He turned towards the children and opened his eyes. One young girl that was in a cell had looked at Luffy and what he was pure terror in the girl's eyes. He closed his eyes and when he opened them, he felt a change. He knew what this meant. His eyes had become black.

* * *

 ***Reyna and Sabo***

The two were easily outmatched. Sabo was not able to do anything against the three he was fighting as they were in sync with one another throughout the entire fight. Even with his devil fruit and Haki. those three were still much stronger than him. He knew that they had the experience over him, and by now it was starting to show. Nothing was working and at now seemed that the three weren't even trying anymore. However, Sabo needed to keep them busy so that they wouldn't interfere with Reyna and the Balrog. He knew he had to do something. But his efforts weren't doing much.

He looked towards the division commander but she was much worse. Bleeding profusely, injured in many areas, burnt clothes and body parts, having her flesh show at some parts of her body, this was not looking good for the two of them at all.

However, they could not give up. They had a family to go back to. Reyna had the crew and Sabo had his two brothers. They could not die here. But right now it was a high possibility that they were to die here. But that did not matter for the two of them. If they were going to die, they might as well die fighting.

Sabo was out of ideas, he could not attack because his opponents were one step ahead of him. Not only that, but they were physically stronger than him. He tried defend himself against the 3 on 1 attack but by now he was too tired and hurt. He could not block on time took a hit from the unknown bird like creature as it charged right into his stomach, the man with the spider ability had kicked Sabo right in the face to make him even more groggy, then the man who was a tiger had bit him right in the stomach.

His eyes widened and he felt an immense pain. He felt a few of his ribs break and the bite took a lot of his flesh out. He was still conscious but was bleeding out quickly as he fell to the ground.

At the same time, Reyna was also near death. The Hammer was easily beating her once he turned into a Balrog. She was no match for him in that form. No matter how much she tried, she was still far too weak. Once she saw Sabo drop to the ground, she looked at her brother's sword that was in her hands. She placed a kiss on the blade and pointed it towards the Hammer, as she was now surrounded by the other three men as well.

"Seems like your efforts go to waste." said the Balrog. "That young man died a good death. Fought well and died. Now it shall be your turn." as he raised his sword to strike down Reyna. She knew that she did not have the strength to block it, however, she was still going to try.

She saw the large fire sword come down at full swing. She blinked and time seemed to have slowed down at that very moment. She opened her eyes, her sword was ready to block the initial impact. In her eyes, the sword was coming down very slowly. Her sword was raised but she now accepted death.

Keeping her eyes open but looking at Sabo for an instant, he shouted with all of his might before he went unconscious "REY-CHAN!"

* * *

 **So I added in the backstory of Marco and Jones back when they were younger. I hope you guys will enjoy the little twist I have that will be revealed in the next chapter or so. And I skipped out on the fights purposely this chapter... I know... But the next chapter will be action packed instead of focusing on story building. The enemy characters are made up btw, and so is this island... If anyone wants to take a guess at the twist, let me know in the reviews. And speaking off, feel free to leave a favorite, follow or comment. I really love the feedback and support from all of you. Thank you guys and have a nice day.**


	12. Chapter 12

**Hell's Gate**

The Hammer had now almost won the battle. Sabo went down but he was still conscious and all he had to do was to strike down Reyna. Once he turned into the Balrog form, she never stood a chance, although, she did manage to hit him a few times but nothing was severe.

As he had brought down his sword, Reyna looked up and closed her eyes. Her heart had seemed to stop and she held in a breath. She opened her eyes and she then looked at Sabo, who was near her sight as he was on the ground on top of a pool of his own blood. It was at this point where she had accepted death.

Sabo looked at the new division commander. He realized that they would die here however, they weren't dead yet. There may yet be some hope. However, that hope had died out when he saw Reyna's eyes towards him. Mustering the remaining strength he had left before he lost consciousness, he wanted to say something to jolt her back to life but all he could do was scream out "REY-CHAN!"

* * *

 ***Luffy and Marco***

Once Marco had realized that something wrong with his younger brother, he needed to act quickly. He averted his attention from the vampire woman who he knew he could have beaten very easily. She was nowhere near a threat to Marco. Maybe she was just someone to keep him occupied for some time. Whatever the case was, before he could even act, Luffy had sprung into action and instantly killed the woman who was trying to stop them with a quick and strong punch that almost made no sound. The punch had made a hole through her chest and she was lying down, lifeless and slowly drowning in her own blood.

Marco knew he had to try to calm down Luffy as he didn't understand why this was happening. This was supposed to be under control, yet here he is, having lost his fight with that inner demon inside of him. Marco couldn't do much as the young boy started break all the doors of the cells, which made Marco believe that this was possibly a controlled release, if such thing were possible.

Once Luffy had freed all of the children, Marco had pointed to a direction where they could all escape and all of them ran towards the exits that Marco had directed them to. Luffy however, was already gone from this place. Marco had instantly became a full Phoenix and used his Observation Haki to find Luffy, which he did and just followed him. However, he noticed that there were many people in the way where he was headed and taking a look at Luffy, he was almost steaming from his body. He thought this was odd and would definitely get that checked out by Mika after they found the crew members and got out of the island.

The problem at hand was the enemies that Luffy was about to run head on to. Marco was about to dive down and take them out but he then realized that Luffy moved at such a speed where if he wasn't a veteran, he wouldn't have been able to keep up with. And with this speed, he attacked with such force that it was really starting to scare Marco because Luffy was never this strong. Luffy wasn't weak per say but he wasn't THIS strong. He knew the curse was taking him badly. And Marco wanted to help out his little brother as much as he could but it hurt him so much that he could not be able to. Not only that, he wanted to know what caused all of this. And he knew he was going to beat the hell out of the person who made Luffy lose control.

Still flying through the building, Luffy just broke down walls with his bare fist. This was a new feat that Luffy was apparently capable of doing as he got taken by whatever it was inside of him. Not only that, but Luffy's arua became much more dangerous and dark. It gave off a bloodthirsty feeling and for the first time in Marco's life, he feared for the enemy. He knew that soon enough Jones would be able to sense this and stop Luffy in his tracks but he feared for everything else.

After killing more and more enemies and breaking down wall after wall, the two of them had finally made it out of the place they were in and Marco had scanned the area to see what was going on and his jaw dropped as he looked ahead at what was going on and he was furious. He took a glance at Luffy and he saw the young boy who had lost his mind and was giving off an aura that was similar to when Pops was very pissed off.

* * *

* **Ace and Thatch***

Both Sandoz and Bane were evenly matched with Thatch and Ace. The two division commanders weren't shocked to see people at their strength, this was the New World after all. There's bound to be strong pirates across the seas. And plus having counters against what the two Whitebeard Pirates were known for was making things slightly more annoying for the two. But they needed to get done with this quickly and get these woman out of here and possibly back to their homes, if they had one.

However, as evenly matched as this fight was going, it was clear for both Ace and Thatch that they were overestimating their opponents too much. Those two seemed to be going all out as they were slowly but surely getting tired from constant fighting. While Ace and Thatch weren't even breaking a sweat. There was one clear difference that was being noticed by Ace. Sandoz could not use Haki. That's what he was trying to find out.

Throughout the fight the two had going on, Ace let himself get hit numerous times however because he knew how to use his devil fruit so well, he was able to let the attack go through him without causing any sort of damage. He had pretended to get hit and dished out attacks without Haki but it was to no avail as Sandoz could easily bring up rocks as shields from any of Ace's attacks.

Bane and Thatch was slightly different. Thatch wasn't having trouble per say, however it was hard to hit Bane. Not only could the man regrow his limbs and heal his internals muscles and organs, he was also very agile and was not letting Thatch hit him at all. Which made him lead to believe that the only way to kill the man was to cut his head off and stab him through the heart right after. He could also use a Haki attack but it's not like a Logia where the powers get cancelled out, this was a Paramecia type devil fruit and this was annoying because the regeneration speed was fast but it was still slower than Marco's healing ability Thatch had thought. Once he figured out that the speed was slower than Marco, a light bulb in his head went off.

"Oi Ace, Roo!" As he now uses Armament Haki to clad his sword. Ace made two fists and covered them with fire. Both enemies had laughed briefly because fire would not work against rock and Bane could regrow anything.

What happened however, was something the two did not expect. On one hand as Thatch was seemingly swinging recklessly, he managed to get near Sandoz as Ace started to slowly make a move to where Bane was.

Through the reckless swinging, Thatch managed to cut off Sandoz's head while Ace punched a hole through the heart of Bane and kept on burning his with so much intense and hot fire that he was able to burn body up until it was nothing but ashes to which then he had kicked to spread out. The heat around the fire was so hot that some of the metal bars had started to melt and Thatch along with the woman were sweating profusely.

When they were done, they helped the woman and started making their way out of this place. Only to sense that all hell's breaking loose when they could feel the intense aura that they could easily tell that "possessed"

Luffy was giving off. They started to follow the direction of Luffy's aura and noticed that they were headed towards the far side of the island. They were rushing as the aura kept on getting by the second and they wondered what was making him go this angry. Usually he had it under control but this was the first in a long time where he lost it, and this was a very bad episode. They needed to help calm him down quick.

When they had arrived to where Luffy's aura was leading them, they were already too late. Ace now surrounded himself with fire while Thatch once again took out both of his swords and this time covered the blades with Armament Haki from the start.

* * *

 ***Jones and Mika***

Jones was getting very anxious throughout walking in the cave. He didn't quite understand why but he had a very bad feeling about something. It wasn't the tunnel that he was getting anxious about, it was elsewhere. He just couldn't pinpoint the exact location. However, he did have Luffy's aura on lock so he knew where Luffy was and if he was in a tight spot. However, the main thing that Jones was focusing on Luffy for was to see if it's him or if he somehow lost to the curse.

In any case, the first thing they needed to do was get out of this place which was going to be slightly difficult. They first had to clear the cave like tunnel that had 35 guards who were patrolling throughout the area. Each of them had night vision goggles on and they were heavily armed.

Jones knew that although Mika had Observation Haki which she could see the auras of the enemy, there was still no light for her to see anything else. So what he decided to do was put her in an area where the guards were not patrolling and he walked right in the middle of everything and all of the guards were surprised that someone was brave and bold enough to do something like this. However, the man that was in front of them was the one who at one point at time was called Roger's Demon. Of course nowadays he was nothing like his old self, he was still just as dangerous and even more stronger now than what he was back then.

All 35 guards had their weapons pointed towards him. A couple had guns and the rest had handheld melee weapons. Jones smiled. He looked at everyone that wanted to kill him and without taking out his weapon or activating his devil fruit. All he did was draw everyone's attention and then suddenly each of them had fell down. The smell of blood was nice to Jones but there was another smell that was more attractive to the man more than blood now days. The smell of Mika's hair was practically calling him, as she was on the other side of the dead bodies, with a sword in her hand. Jones had walked up to her pat her head as he was taller than his girlfriend "That'll do Mika. That'll do."

And just as the two made it to the exit, without word Jones took out his sword. Mika did not know why but she could easily sense that Jones was very angry about something. Almost like he snapped. Mika got worried and sick to her stomach as she saw and felt the anger that was coming out of Jones.

They got out of the door and Jones had ran towards where everything was going down and Mika had wide eyes as she could not believe what she was seeing. However she shook it off as she had a job to do.

* * *

Reyna looked up as she heard two swords clash. She thought she was the one to do so but when she was the sword, she smiled and all the energy left in he was gone and she fell on the ground and landed right by Sabo.

"Mika!" Jones said "Stay there for a minute or so… I'm not sending you alone." and with his strength he was easily able to push away the Balrog. Just as Jones was starting to get surrounded by three other people, Marco and Luffy had arrived as Marco was up above flying and Luffy was giving off a very dangerous presence and aura that Jones felt was very familiar. He also could tell that Luffy had become now a bloodthirsty monster.

No one made a move except for Ace and Thatch who had arrived as well. Thatch had his swords out and Ace covered himself in fire. However Jones looked at the situation at hand and said "Mika, take Ace and Luffy and get back to the ship and start sailing. We will catch up with you soon."

She nodded but Ace and Luffy stayed. They wanted to fight and kill the person who did this to Sabo. Jones couldn't move from his spot, however, Marco was above them. Marco looked at the situation and had switched with Jones as the former Roger Pirate grabbed Ace and Luffy and threw them both down. Luffy had calmed down and Ace had no fire surrounding him. "Go with Mika, Sabo needs you. And protect her at all costs and make sure no harm comes to Reyna and Sabo. Now go!" Both boys had now come back to their senses and realized that Mika needed help so they got up quickly and picked up the unconscious bodies of Sabo and Reyna and followed Mika.

Thatch and Jones made sure that no one was following them but he saw one of the people in the area holding up a den-den mushi saying to sound the alarm. Jones exhaled and Thatch gave out a bloodthirsty smile while Marco finally made an angered face.

The whole island now knew of their presence as the alarm had sounded and the three of them knew that Mika's group was going to be followed and even though they were being slowed down due to Reyna's and Sabo's injuries, Mika had Ace and Luffy with her. All they needed to do at the moment was get rid of these guys and catch up with them.

* * *

The alarm had sounded and Mika looked worried. The ship was so far and the whole island now knew of their presence. They needed shelter. They knew they couldn't get back to their ship at the moment even though they had the strength to do so, it was still a risk because they were also carrying Sabo and Reyna.

Quickly thinking on her feet, Mika decided that they should take a hospital like building if there were any on the island. This was going to be very unlikely but they could try. Time was being lost fast and they needed every second they could get. The only thing she was able to do for the time being was to bandage the two as best as she could. She didn't have much equipment with her so she needed to take them to safety first but even that was going to be difficult for the time being due to the alarm. Whether they liked it or not, this island really was hell.

* * *

The three strongest members of the Whitebeard Pirates (Besides the Old Man himself) looked at their enemies. There was a Balrog and Jones heavily insisted that he would fight them. The three people that were with him were giving Marco provoking looks and since he was going to kick someone's ass, he might as well take them. However, that left Thatch doing nothing for almost a second until suddenly a group of pirates had made their way towards them. He was easily outnumbered 25 to 1 but he just smiled and had his two swords out. Jones had his one sword out but had not transformed into his devil version while Marco was just in his hybrid form. The three of them were going to enjoy this easy but very bloody victory.

The first to make a move was Thatch as a few men had rushed towards him. His two sword like daggers in his hands was something terrifying to look at. Unlike the true swordsman of the Whitebeard Pirates "Flower Blade" Vista or Davy Jones himself, Thatch's use of his daggers were much more bloodthirsty and he fought with a sense of anger whenever he had his daggers out. The few that had rushed towards him were cut down without hesitation and in a blink of an eye. The others that were surrounding Thatch then all rushed towards him, trying to use their numbers advantage. However, that wouldn't work as Thatch was a battle tested man and quite frankly he liked it when he was at a disadvantage. This meant that he could be more brutal in the ways he killed people. His whole personality changes when he gets serious in a fight, or when he fights angry, and on this occasion he was furious.

Easily cutting the many limbs of his opponents and killing them in very unique ways, he invoked fear in the remaining soldiers. With them being afraid of him, it made it a lot easier for him to kill them as well. Thatch was normally a kind and loving prankster with his family but once anyone hurts them, that all goes down the window and he becomes a monster in his own way. And to his opponents right now, monster wasn't even the appropriate word to describe the man as he killed the last one by first stabbing him in the eye with one dagger and slitting his throat with the other.

Marco's case was quite simple. Zoan users fighting a mythical Zoan user and that too being the first mate and vice captain of the Whitebeard Pirates. A 3 on 1 was nothing. He at one point and time used to fight many Vice Admirals on occasion and would take on one of the Admirals. Three thugs of Kaido were not a big deal for him at all. And it really showed as he was way more experienced than the three he was fighting. The first one to attack him was the man who was an unknown bird of some sort and had flown up to dive attack him but Marco had shut that down with a Haki infused kick to the face, snapping the birds neck and ultimately killing the man.

Next came a tiger that leaped right at Marco right after the kick but Marco was ready for it as he moved to the side and had used his shoulder to push the tiger in midair. Once he did that, the man had transformed himself back into a human to brace the impact of the fall and as he rushed towards the first division commander, Marco had picked up a pistol from the ground and shot the man in between his eyes and killed him.

The third guy surrendered as he got down on his knees but Marco wasn't having any of that. Taking out the sword that he took with him, he decapitated the man without hesitation. Now, it would have made sense for him to question the man and get more information out of him, however, Sabo and Reyna were badly injured and they needed to catch up to Mika's group as fast as they could because they needed to get back to the Moby Dick soon enough.

Jones was standing as still as possible but moving his left right to block attacks from the Balrog's sword. The power difference between the two was very far however he understood why Reyna lost to him. Due to the fire surrounding the Balrog, it was weakening the her strength. Small burns that were adding up overtime as the fight went own and the huge size and difference in physical strength was what made her lose. If it was purely based on skill, Reyna could have easily won but the small things was the reason why she lost. He definitely was going to start training her once she got healthy.

This fight did not last long as Jones had got bored of this fight and quickly ended it when he went on the offensive. With one strong attack, he had broken the Balrog's sword and made it disappear and then he had cut the head off of the man in an instant.

Right after all three were done fighting, all around the same time, they looked around for more enemies and had checked the area in a quick search but they could not find anyone else so they decided that they should go after Mika and her group. The three of them hoped that there were more people to kill. They needed to get the frustration and anger out for harming two of the crew members.

* * *

 ***Mika's Group***

Luffy and Ace were moving as fast and as carefully as they could while Mika led the group. They weren't going to make it to the ship back in time so the next best choice was to get to a hospital but that was going to be a difficult task as the alarm was ringing and the entire island was on the lookout for them. Mika's train of thought was not straight as she had to worry about a lot of things. She just hoped that Marco's group would join her as soon as possible because she needed to look after the two patients and didn't want anything to happen to either Luffy or Ace.

Rushing through Dead Land, they searched for anything that looked like hospitals. However, nothing was to be found. All or most of the buildings were already broken down and there was no place to hide. Surely their luck was about to run out soon.

After being on the move without stop, they wanted to catch their breath so they entered a broken down house and stayed there for a few minutes. Ace had checked throughout the house and found that there was no one living in there so that was good for them. Mika did a search for any materials to treat her two patients and found nothing.

They hid for another few minutes as Mika had changed the bandages once again but as she was doing so, her senses were telling her that something bad was about to happen. She tried not to think about anything negative for the time being but her instincts were right as she heard many voices surrounding the house. She looked at the two brothers and took a deep breath before saying "I really hate asking you guys this but could you two hold them off for a few minutes until I get the bandages changed please?"

Both Ace and Luffy's lit up. They wanted revenge for what happened to Reyna and Sabo. No one hurt their family and will get away with it. For them, there was nothing more important to them. Ace finally found a place where he could belong to and happily call family. He even found a father figure in Whitebeard, something which he thought was going to be impossible at one point in time.

Now their job for the time being was to defend the house and make sure Mika has enough time to do whatever she needed to do for both of her patients. And since the older crew members were not there to help them, they needed to make sure they were on point. Even though they knew the enemy was going to be much stronger than them, the trio fought best when there were at least two of them working together. In this case it was Ace and Luffy. One being a fire user and the other one made out of rubber.

The two stepped outside as they told Mika to take her time with everything as they would be able to handle anything together. When the two boys looked at the opposing forces, they were not surprised at the large number of people that had surrounded them. They looked more than ready to fight anyone who came in their way. Since Luffy was in his normal state, he was much more calm and relaxed. Before Ace done anything, he looked at Ace and told him to not fight for a brief moment. Ace looked confused but then he listened to his younger brother. He didn't know what Luffy had in mind, but he trusted the young one.

Luffy closed his eyes and as soon as he did, a voice had called out "Stop him!" and instantly many people rushed towards him but standing in front of them was Ace.

"You're not getting at my younger brother that easily now." he said as he burst into flames and protected Luffy with a wall of fire as he stood right in the middle of it, waiting for anyone to make a move.

Luffy opened his eyes and had released a wave of Conqueror's Haki and instantly many of the people that surrounded him had fell. Even Ace felt it but he didn't pass out as he knew it wasn't going to harm him, however now there were only 6 enemies left. 3 men and 3 women pirates that looked and gave off a much stronger presence than the others were looking at the young boy, with raised eyebrows.

"Oh so that's what you were doing huh Lu… Well shit there goes our fun… At least Mika won't get mad about that."

It was clear that there was a leader among the group as one of the male pirates was behind the others, covering the bottom half of his face with a scarf. He had a strange tattoo on his body however neither of the boys could tell what it looked like. But they could easily tell that he was the strongest one of the group.

It now became a two on five, however, the one at the back was too far to make a move against Ace and Luffy. So currently it was a two on four. Each of the four had a weapon. One had an umbrella, another had a lance, one had a scythe and the last one held an axe. No one had made a move yet but Mika had called out that she was done with her work for the time being and that they could leave but Ace yelled back telling her to hold on for a few minutes. She then stepped out of the house and finally the man at the back stepped forward. He still wasn't close enough to do anything however he was now looking at Mika's every move. He knew she was trouble for the four of them but she stayed still and so did he.

However, the four of them charged at Luffy and Ace but they were ready. Ace used the fire wall once more when they got closer to the duo and once the six of them were in the circle, this is where Luffy and Ace were at their peaks. Being a Logia user was an advantage to Ace as he told Luffy to remain hidden while he took all the damage as the attacks had went through him, and when those attacks missed, Luffy came in and hit them with a long range punch.

However, Ace was still putting up a good fight himself as well. Using his devil fruit combined with his raw and pure strength he was holding back all four of them by himself as the attacks with the weapons were just going through him and whenever he got on the offensive, he was able to hit them with kicks, punches and his fire ability. However, things started to get rough for the duo once the four of them had gotten used to the attacks and started to coat their weapons in Armament Haki. Now, all the two could do for the time being was defend. They could not attack and be reckless because their Haki was not as strong as the four enemies. And this is where things got bad for the duo. Suddenly, the other four pirates started to increase in speed and strength and since they were Haki users, both Ace and Luffy were getting hit. However the could not fall just yet. They needed to hold off for a bit longer because they had hoped for Marco's group to join up. So they took many hits but were also trying to fight back.

The man with a scythe and the axe went for Ace while the one with the lance and umbrella were going for Luffy. They were being overpowered and suddenly, the wall that Ace had had disappeared as he got hit too much and his focus on the wall was lost as he got hit with the Axe in his chest and the scythe had cut his face but neither of the injuries were troublesome.

Luffy got hit with the lance right on his fist as he tried to do a long range punch that he thought was quick enough to be able to hit the man. Then the one with the umbrella had hit him in the face with such force that he had flown back and landed right at the feet of Mika.

Mika looked at the two injured boys and took out her blade with her but she along with everyone else, including the two boys felt three very strong auras coming towards them and the trio looked relieved.

* * *

The trio of Marco, Jones and Thatch were following auras and were also following the large group of people that were making their way somewhere and they trio just hoped that nothing was wrong but they could not sense or feel anything wrong so they did not do anything. Gradually getting closer to where Mika's group was, they felt a very strong release of Conquerors Haki and all three of them knew that it was Luffy who did it.

The three were sort of worried but not slightly relaxed as they now knew the large number would have definitely been reduced however they did not know if there were any strong ones who withstood that blast.

As they got closer to Luffy and the rest of them, they had released their own auras to scare away any weaker pirates and thugs that wanted to try to fight them.

Marco landed back into his human form while Thatch and Jones were running, and they made it to the house to where Mika was and saw that she had her sword drawn as Ace and Luffy were heavily injured but none of their injuries were life threatening.

The three looked at the people who attacked them and Marco was the first one who spoke "What the fuck are they doing here?" as he was confused to see the five pirates.

Jones answered "Well that's what we found out… We'll explain on the way out… he knows they can't take me on."

"You?" said Thatch "Last time I checked there were three of us."

"I could kill all of them except maybe him…" clearly pointing to the man at the back.

Not a single one of the opposing pirates moved an inch due to the man at the back telling them to fall back and retreat. They waited to see what would happen but since they thought it was safe for them to fall back, they slowly did. However one of them was stuck from his place. The man with the scythe was filled with terror as he was sweating so much and had a facial expression of pure fear.

The man at the back called for him once, but he did not move. He called him for a second time and still nothing. The man at the back then made a tight grip at the weapon he was carrying which no one could see because of the separated distance but he did not do anything except for that. Instead what happened was that Jones in his devil form stood right in front if the man who was stuck and said "make sure you tell your captain that the demon of Roger sends his regards." and suddenly the man was able to walk again and started running away from Jones and the Whitebeard pirates.

Jones and the man in the back just stared at one another until Mika was able to quickly tend to the wounds of Ace and Luffy. By the time she was finished with that, Ace and Luffy had once again picked up Sabo and Reyna and the full group started to make their way back to the ship.

* * *

A den-den mushi had rang somewhere on an island filled with pirates "What is it?" said a man in a deep baritone voice

"They took the bait."

"Excellent." he said and hung up the call. "Now back to business." looking at the people in front of him.

* * *

 **Okay guys chapter done. I hope you guys enjoyed this. I was going to make this a little more longer but since my last chapter was over 8000 words and also because I want to drag this out one or two more chapters longer. Most likely the next chapter will be the last for this arc... I don't know yet... And yes, I quickly mentioned gear 2 Luffy but only because he was in his curse mode, he can't use it regularly.**


	13. Chapter 13

**Aftermath**

On the Moby Dick, Whitebeard had a weird feeling about this whole situation. He only had two rules on his ship and one was set in stone which was no man shall kill his crew mate, which was already broken by Teach. And his second rule that he personally had for himself was that no one was allowed to touch his crew members. He had hoped that the group that was sent out to find the missing crewmates would come back with them alive. But something told him that was not going to be the case. He cared not for if a power struggle were to happen in the case of a Yonko war, he also did not care for what the consequences would be if a war between two Emperors of the New World happened. If his sons and daughters were not alive, he would gladly tear apart the whole seas for them. That was the type of man Edward Newgate was.

He was sitting in his throne and drinking his sake, patiently waiting. Although he did not need any preparation, mentally, he was slowly preparing himself for the outcome. He was prepared for any loss that were about to come if a war were to break out. His family knew what they were doing and this was not a child's game. However, he also knew that they were known as the strongest crew in the world and having a right hand man in Marco and the man who was once (and still is) known as "Rogers Demon" on his side was quite an advantage. Not only that but his allies and fleet was at a very large number. A number so large that all of them could even challenge the Marines at their own base in Marineford. And to say that he had "allies" within the government as well, such as Monkey D. Garp. And through his youngest son and "left hand man", he had the alliance of the Revolutionary Army as well as the Davy Family. A name that put fear even in the Vinsmoke family.

If a war were to come, he knew they would have the numbers to challenge a Yonko. And that Yonko being Kaido, everyone was needed. Also, he was preparing for the situation of his death. Now, he of course had no intention on dying, he had a son to crown King eventually so he wanted to be alive to that. But if in case he were to die, he was going to make Ace the new captain of the Whitebeard Pirates. Although he was quite new, he knew none of his old sons would want to be captain. And quite frankly, besides Jones and Marco, he didn't know if anyone would be as good as them at being a captain but then the young trio of Ace, Sabo and Luffy came along. And Sabo was of course going to become a member of the Revolutionary Army and Luffy was aiming for Pirate King with his own crew. And that left Ace.

Ace was young and was a hot headed, impulsive and quick minded. Exactly how Roger was when he was younger. And everyday Whitebeard and Jones were always shocked at how similar father and son were. All Ace needed was maturity and more experience and he would have been a great captain of his own crew but he was not going to leave. Not after everything he received since becoming apart of the Whitebeard Pirates. So he was going to be captain. Of course he was going to talk to Marco and Jones first but his mind was made up.

He cleared his thoughts and took a deep breath and exhaled. He looked at the sea and a voice called out to him saying that they had anchored at a nearby island which had belonged to them. They were about a few hours away from where the group was sent to so he was not worried. Their job now was to just stay there until they got back and then leave. He told the crew to go restock on supplies. Even though they didn't need much as they had just recently stopped at an island, he did not know what would happen after the group comes back so he wanted everything in order so that they wouldn't need to make another supply run at least until they got to their own territories.

* * *

Marco was leading the way back to the ship as he was in flying above the crew, calling out any enemies that were in the way so that Jones, Thatch and Mika could kill them. Ace and was holding Sabo while Reyna was being held by Luffy and both boys were careful with how they were carrying the two severely injured crewmates and at the same time running so that they would not be left behind as they were being followed at a distance. Almost like the people behind them were leading them towards the ship. Which was expected by everyone, they knew they were headed right into a trap but that did not matter. All they needed to do was to get to the ship and make their way off of this island.

They finally made it to the ship and were correct with their prediction that they were walking right into a trap because the ship was being guarded by the remaining pirates that were still alive. All of them seemed much stronger than the ones that the group had killed throughout their time on the island and were now getting ready for a very big fight.

"Mika, is there a place on the ship where I can put them?" asked Jones

"Yes, I did have the shipwrights make a small infirmary with enough equipment in case if anything went wrong."

"Brilliant." Said Jones and carefully took Reyna and Sabo and placed them on his shoulders "Mika I want you to run to the ship. No one will be able to see you. Marco when I get back, you fly towards the ship and make sure no one goes in." Marco nodded "Mika, as soon as I disappear, you run." and she nodded as well.

The group did not move while being surrounded in a circle. The people who were on the ship had now come off and were joining in on the circle and that's when Jones had disappeared and Mika ran. Since Mika had the speed devil fruit, she was able to run without being seen and no one was fast enough to catch her. And since no one had Haki, they were unable to even feel her presence. She made it to the room before Jones did he appeared a second later and placed the two o them in beds and then disappeared once more.

He reappeared to where the remaining group was and that's when Marco took flight and made it to the deck of the ship and since people were able to see him, some had chased Marco on board and he was now surrounded all by himself.

Jones, Luffy, Ace and Thatch were surrounded by the larger circle but no one was to concerned. They may have been outnumbered but they were Whitebeard Pirates. "Wanna make a bet?" asked Thatch to the group "Most kills win a free meal and losers have to pay?" As soon as he said free meal, Luffy's ears shoot up and they all said yes. "Well then, may be best one win." said Thatch as the opposing pirates had rushed towards the group. "Oh and by the way… No devil fruit abilities." and no one was bothered by that.

"Haki?" asked Jones

"No. Let's make this as 'challenging' as possible."

"You mean more fun for you." said Ace

"Free meal is mine!" says Luffy as they got within arms reach of the group. Jones took out his sword out of its sheath and slit the throats of five enemies with ease. Ace had raw strength but since this was a killing competition, he pulled out his small dagger he took with him and started to attack without any trouble or resistance. Thatch was making heads fly with his two blades as he was just going on a killing spree and having fun while doing so. And for Luffy, since he was at an odd position as he was never really taught how to fight with weapons decided to take a pistol from a dead body (with the help of his devil fruit) and took a sword and started firing and aimlessly slice at enemies, and to everyone's surprise, Luffy was killing enemies down at a high rate.

Back on the ship, Marco was bored with the people he was fighting. He didn't need his weapons as his devil fruit was more than enough. The bright blue wings of his were actually quite deadly if he wanted to attack or defend with them and his talons were enough to rip heads off of bodies. The ships deck was getting all messy due to the blood accumulating from the lifeless bodies of the many pirates that tried to attack Marco.

It didn't take much long until all of the remaining pirates were killed off. The group that made the bet went on a tear and were able to kill off the large circle within a few minutes while Marco had been done defending the ship for a long time and started throwing the dead bodies off of the ship. Once he was done with that, he went inside to the small infirmary and wanted an update from Mika.

"How are they doing yoi?" he asked as he took off his bloodstained shirt and wiped sweat off of his face with his sash that was around his waist.

"I'm treating them as best as I can, but they will live. We need to get back to the Moby so I can properly check them but they are fine for now."

"That's good." he said and exited the room. He made it back on deck and saw Thatch covered in blood but didn't bother asking. He knew it wasn't his blood so he couldn't care less. "Alright well I'm headed to the bath yoi… Ace and Luffy, the two of you clean up the blood on deck and then go take a bath afterwards." and he disappeared inside.

"Alright you bastards, What's your final count?" asked Thatch "Before telling your numbers, I counted 150 dead bodies. If the numbers don't add up I will find out who was lying." He gave the three a stern look "I got 44."

"44." Said Jones

"Killed 32." said Ace

"I uh killed 30…" said Luffy

"What? That's actually a very high number. I wasn't expecting that…" said Ace

"No devil fruit and no Haki… That's pretty impressive considering no one taught you how to use weapons."

"I'll teach you." said Jones looking at the ship and cleaning the blood off of his sword.

"Ah but wait… You and Jones-san tied… What about the free meal?" said Ace

"Ehh we'll give it to you. We tied and you beat Luffy." said Thatch and then he and Jones went off to take a bath as well.

The two boys were left on the deck and while Ace was celebrating, Luffy was mad at his older brother that he had won and started to sulk around by starting to clean up the deck by himself. It was shortly after that Ace had helped Luffy clean.

It didn't take them too long to finish up and by the time they were done, both took off their shirts as they were dirty and had quite a bit of blood on them and made their way to the infirmary to check up on Sabo and Reyna.

Knocking on the door, the two were silent as they waited for Mika to open and give them an update about their conditions. Mika answered and the two quickly noticed that she was tired so the two brothers gave each other a quick look and then started talking "How are they doing?" asked Ace

She exhaled "Well, they are going to live. All we need to do is get back to the Moby quickly so I can treat them better." Both were relieved to hear that they would be fine. She allowed the two of them to come in and see them but they decided not to bother her any longer so they kindly had refused and made their way to the bath as the elder pirates had just finished with theirs and were already out on deck.

The two boys made it to the bath and were finally able to relax. Both were exhausted and couldn't imagine how the others were feeling at this very moment but they could be needed at any point since they were in enemy waters. They quickly washed up, changed into different clothing and made their way on deck.

Marco said that they would be a few hours behind the main ship and just hoped that nothing was to happen to the Moby as well as themselves. They did not want to runt into any more trouble considering the things they had learned.

By dinner time, Thatch had come out of the kitchen and brought out the dinner to the deck. He made a simple meal which was just beef burgers and French fries. He made more than enough so that everyone would be full by the time they were finished and they all had dug in the food very quickly. All of the were very hungry yet no one really said anything until they grabbed their food. All Thatch could do as a chef was nothing but smile at his family enjoying the burgers he made.

During dinner, the three older pirates had a discussion.

"So what do we do about this whole thing?" asked Thatch

"Well Pops will be going for a fight most likely yoi."

"Agreed." Said Jones "But we have to consider everything that can take place. We need to be fully prepared. And I mean FULLY."

"I say we not discuss anything we have in our minds until we go talk to Oyaji." said Thatch

"Why not?" asked Marco with a raised eyebrow. He wasn't against this idea stated by Thatch, he just wanted a reason.

"Well them we'd basically be arguing about things that Pops might like but we completely throw out of the picture."

"He is right on that." said Jones "However, I want your opinions on this, we let Garp know."

"Of course yoi." said Marco

"Yeah that sounds like a good idea. We tell Pops first and then he's the first one we call."

Both nodded. They needed all the help they could get.

* * *

The island the Whitebeard Pirates were at currently was peaceful. There weren't any pirates nor were there Marines which was surprising so they went into town and got everything that they needed and more. Whitebeard told them that they should get enough so that they wouldn't have to stop at another island until they got back into their own territory. Which was smart and important.

Walking around the town, Vista and Jozu were walking side by side. Once the people recognized that the pirates at the island were Whitebeard Pirates, the civilians were very friendly with them. No one was scared of them and surprisingly a lot of the store owners that they got supplies from wanted to give them free things but everyone of the Whitebeard Pirates had insisted that they would pay and actually do so.

Walking through the island, Vista had heard something that made his ears twitch but since he did not want to attract any attention to himself, he just walked normally however he had used his Observation Haki to listen in on a certain conversation.

"Yes Commodore Teach, it is as you said."

"Well then, you know what your job is Lafitte." and he hung up

Once the conversation was over, Vista looked at the road ahead and wondered why Blackbeard would be involved in this. He was going to bring this up to Whitebeard once he returned to the ship. But for now, the Whitebeard Pirates were all told to relax for some time when they get finished with their supply run.

He and Jozu had entered a bar and were not surprised at all when they saw the rest of the division commanders at the same place, some were already drinking while others were just sitting and enjoying this little break that they got. Even though they all loved the seas, they did like being on land and roaming around islands. It was just something that they liked to feel.

* * *

Back on the main ship, once the phone call from Marco had come through saying that they were on their way back and also informing the captain what had happened, Whitebeard was slightly concerned that two of his family members were severely injured during the rescue mission. Not only that but the missing crew mates were confirmed dead. All the more reason why he wanted to go to war. The one mistake he made as a father was to leave Teach alone after he had killed a newcomer and almost killed Thatch and Luffy. But this time he would not let anything slide. He was furious. He would only be satisfied until Kaido is killed by his own hands.

It was sunset and the weather was still quite warm on the island so everyone was out on deck, enjoying the peaceful and warm night. Even Whitebeard, who was mainly thinking about what was going to happen afterwards was enjoying the night with his family. This was something that the Old Man had wanted. His treasure was his family. From Marco all the way to the newest recruit they had just picked up from this island, Whitebeard was proud of all of them. He loved each son and daughter he picked up along the way of his journey. He closed his eyes and took in the moment that was going on, like he did for all the other times his family was out enjoying the weather and having fun on the ship. It wasn't until late night where everyone had fallen asleep except for him and he got up from his seat and made it to his room.

He sat at his desk and could feel the aura's of Marco and the group getting closer and closer. He stayed in his room for a few minutes until someone outside of the door had knocked. The door had creaked open as it was not shut all the way and he saw the trio of Marco, Thatch and Jones.

He gestured for them to enter and they shut to door fully closed behind them. Thatch sat on the bed and was right beside Marco as he sat down in the chair right in front of the desk. Jones stood by the door and was leaning his back on it.

"So Marco… What is it that you have to discuss with me." he spoke

Marco took a deep breath and exhaled before he started talking.

* * *

"So Jack, what of the Whitebeard Pirates?" Kaido spoke through a den den-mushi

"Well they got off the island."

"Good."

"What of Davy Jones?"

"He's with them." Jack replied and that's when Kaido hung up the call.

He looked to his left and saw Big Mom salivating. He knew she always wanted to kill Whitebeard and now was her best chance to do so. They both looked in front of them and saw Blackbeard smiling "Well then… Let's have a war!" he yelled out.

* * *

When the trio were done with the talk with Whitebeard, they went into Marco's room and decided to talk it out as many decisions were made as it was still nightfall and everyone was asleep, including Whitebeard.

"First things first, around lunch time, we will tell the rest of the commanders what is going on yoi. Secondly yoi, we have to make sure we get in touch with our allies. I'll do that so don't worry about it."

"I'll call Dragon and my sister. I think I can convincer her to fight with us."

"What's one person going to do?" asked Thatch

"Well technically speaking she is the current head of the Davy family. They'll fight with us if she gives out the word."

"That's actually very helpful. Do we tell Garp?"

"Yes. I'll call him too yoi. We need at least some help on that side so we know what we are going to deal with."

"Alright so now that we got al the calls out of the way, how are we going to prepare for this war?" asked Thatch. "This isn't something as easy as two pirate crews fighting. There are two Emperors, one fuck head and a shit ton of Marines and ordinary pirates as well."

"I'll personally get in touch with Shanks. Though I may need to leave the ship for quite some time for that to happen." said Jones "This war will cause unnecessary death for a lot of people but we can try reducing our casualties."

"Speaking of death…" said Marco "When we were telling Pops the situation and when he was talking to us, did it seem to you that he wouldn't mind dying?"

Both Thatch and Jones looked towards Marco. Both of them had felt like that during the talk but dared not to say anything about it. "I only say that because we all know his health is starting to deteriorate and he legit asked if we would let Ace be captain of the crew in case he was to die."

"I mean this war is pretty big, we all know this. And shit may go down the drain. But I don't think he's ready to die just yet." said Jones. Both men looked at him, remembering that his former captain used to be Gol D Roger. "Roger's last words to me was 'I'm not gonna die, partner' however, he knew his death was coming up and he accepted it. He was dying and after he became Pirate King, there was nothing else for him to do. There wasn't that devilish spark in his eyes anymore since then. That's when Rayleigh-san and I knew that he was content with dying. Pops on the other hand, has to hand over the entire seas to his youngest son. The one child of his going on and doing big things… Of course he wants to see that. He's just being prepared for worse case scenario. Trust me on this" he said all serious. "And plus, while I'm alive, no one and nothing will touch him." The two were reassured with his talk but were still in doubt in their minds. They were not ready to lose their father.

"You know something" Jones said while laughing for a brief moment "You know why they want this war?" he looked at the two and both were silent "You guys do know that Whitebeard knows where and _what_ One Piece is."

"Yes we know that but that doesn't explain much as to why they want to start this war. And plus don't you know what One Piece is?" both said.

"Well yes. And you see here, my idiot captain and Pops were more so friends than rivals. And both trusted each other a lot. I don't know what Roger told Whitebeard in Wano when we all were there, but the one thing I know for sure is that he told them the Will of D."

"We always wondered what that was yoi."

"I'll actually get to that if you want to know… But neither of you tell a living soul. Especially the trio…" He continued with his explanation "But about One Piece, after Roger told Oyaji about it, what did Pops do?"

They thought to themselves for a minute and came up with "Nothing?"

"Exactly. And who do you think stands in the way of people who come to the New World?"

"The Emperors. Oyaji and us?"

"Bingo… Now why would Whitebeard not do anything about One Piece considering he knows everything about it? And I mean everything."

"He's always said that he never wanted any of that. His treasure is us." Thatch replied

"Well yes but if one has to go through the Emperors to get to One Piece, and Whitebeard knows where and what it is, doesn't it look like he's 'defending' it. Or at least waiting for someone worthy?"

The two were still confused "Jheeze you guys are idiots. Roger indirectly told Whitebeard to guard One Piece and to sit right in front of the 'seat' of the Pirate King." Both looked at Jones and they seemed to have more questions than they got answers for but they slowly processed the information in their heads and then started to understand. Since Whitebeard does not want One Piece, all the pirates that do want it need to get past him eventually and since the Yonko are the closest, they might as well go to war with him and start a power struggle where they can take advantage of that situation.

Once Jones had realized that they finally understood the reasoning behind the war, he looked at the ceiling and now said "About the 'Will of D' here's how the story goes. It's a story from long ago…"

* * *

Blackbeard, also known as Marshall D. Teach was now back on his own ship and had called the main crew to discuss a few things with them. "It took you all a while to get back from your tasks…"

"Sorry Commodore Teach, I got stuck in the middle of things." said Lafitte "However I was successful."

"Wonderful."

"Burgess you need to be more careful. You could have almost died."

"I wasn't expecting that damn Dog to be _that_ strong."

"Well whatever the case… Whatever happens, we will hide in the back for as long as possible. Let Whitebeard, Kaido and Big Mom kill each other and then we have a clear path. Oh and I will be taking their devil fruits. And once we kill the Yonko, no one will be able to stop us. Not the Marines, not the World Government, and definitely not anyone else. We will become immortal until old age!" and he laughed while his crew was all serious. They knew Teach was a dangerous man and was really difficult to stop right now but if he could get his hands on three powerful devil fruits, he can be already much stronger than he already is and it really would be impossible to stop him. However, none of them were celebrating. Although this plan was quite smart, the only problem to this plan is Whitebeard and Davy Jones. Those two need to die before they are able to do anything.

* * *

 **I'm really sorry but I could jut not get more than 5000 words out for this chapter. I've been extremely busy with school and a few other things and I don't have much time to write out for the story much. However I will be continuing and will finish this and then hopefully start on my next One Piece fanfic. I may or may not upload the first chapter to see the feedback I get from the readers so I know if I should continue it or scrap it. Anyways I do hope you guys enjoyed, and as always please feel free to leave a favorite/follow and leave a review. They are all much appreciated.**


End file.
